Ciena Corporation's (CIEN) Underweight Position Hurt BTX's Performance

BlackRock, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for the “BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust”.  A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust (BTX) follows a unique method by combining technology stocks from the U.S., non-U.S., and private investments and investing in equities across small, mid, and large cap companies with above-average earnings growth potential. BTX returned 0.7% on market price and 1.5% on net asset value (NAV) in Q4 compared to -0.1% for the MSCI ACWI SMID Growth IT Index. The technology sector is positioned as a key market driver in 2025 due to strong fundamentals supported by solid growth in AI, cloud computing, networking, and manufacturing. Please review the Strategy’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust highlighted stocks like Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN). Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) is a network technology company that offers hardware, software, and services for network operators. On February 12, 2026, Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) stock closed at $292.96 per share. One-month return of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) was 20.35%, and its shares gained 226.24% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) has a market capitalization of $41.324 billion.

BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust stated the following regarding Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Finally, an underweight position in Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) (0.4%) detracted from active returns, as the networking technology company’s stock advanced on strong quarterly results supported by robust AI driven demand and accelerating cloud infrastructure spending."

Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 70 hedge fund portfolios held Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) at the end of the third quarter, which was 57 in the previous quarter. Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) reported revenue of $1.35 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, exceeding expectations and marking nearly a 20% year-over-year growth. While we acknowledge the potential of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) and shared a list of best US stocks to buy and hold in 2026. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.