Vestor Capital LLC Increases Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Vestor Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 92.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,700 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $166,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,054,000 after buying an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Ciena by 1,944.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 7,767.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 118.7% during the 1st quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after purchasing an additional 827,352 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $63.97 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.05, a P/E/G ratio of 8.31 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $61.11 and its 200 day moving average is $52.95. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.17 and a one year high of $69.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena 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.