Ken Griffin Boosted Stake In Ciena Corp

Ken Griffin reported early today that his Citadel Investment Group has boosted its stake in Ciena Corp (CIEN). According to the regulatory filing, Ken Griffin now has 5.28 million shares of CIEN in his portfolio, giving a 5.4% passive stake ownership. At the end of the third quarter, Ken Griffin only had 247 thousand shares of CIEN. It’s possible that Ken Griffin bought the shares when the stock was hovering around $12 per share. CIEN rose nearly 2% after Ken Griffin’s filing, and is trading at $14.58.

There were several other hedge funds that were also investing in CIEN. Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management had the most shares than any other hedge funds we track, with 8.58 million shares, which is a new position the firm built in Q3. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies also initiated a position of 1.71 million shares in CIEN.

Ken Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group. The firm is based in Chicago, and ranks among the largest and most successful hedge funds in the world. He avoided extensive press coverage in manners similar to other hedge funds for several years. Ken Griffin has a personal net worth of $2.3 billion as of 2011, making him the 512th richest man in the world. Citadel Investment Group had a portfolio value of nearly $43 billion in the second quarter.

Ciena Corp is “a provider of communications networking equipment, software and services that support the transport, switching, aggregation and management of voice, video and data traffic. The Company operates in four segments: packet-optical transport, packet-optical switching, carrier Ethernet Service delivery, and software and services.” according to Google Finance.