Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires New Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 482,480 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $40,919,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.34% of Ciena at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $148,348,000 after acquiring an additional 33,074 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 959,831 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $81,403,000 after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $57,861,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN traded up $1.40 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $63.71. 1,939,819 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,909,327. The company has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.77, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.91. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $101.44. The business's 50-day moving average price is $83.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on CIEN shares. Northland Securities upgraded Ciena from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on Ciena from $94.00 to $79.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $81.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.41, for a total transaction of $519,588.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 398,549 shares in the company, valued at $30,453,129.09. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 63,442 shares of company stock worth $5,337,764. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company's Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.