Retirement Systems of Alabama Cuts Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Retirement Systems of Alabama trimmed its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 21.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 317,515 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 85,975 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.22% of Ciena worth $26,928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Greenleaf Trust lifted its holdings in Ciena by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,978 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN traded down $3.38 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $89.74. The company had a trading volume of 1,765,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,759,345. 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 Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $101.44. The business's 50 day moving average price is $84.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.58. The firm has a market cap of $12.75 billion, a PE ratio of 157.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company's revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,581 shares of company stock worth $4,875,548 in the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded Ciena from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ciena from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $78.77.

Ciena Company Profile

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.