Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Reduces Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio trimmed its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,897 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 9,175 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Ciena were worth $5,167,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Ciena by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after acquiring an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Ciena by 17.2% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $42.20 and a twelve month high of $91.25. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $68.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.86. The firm has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

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.