Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Acquired by Park Avenue Securities LLC

Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 17.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,350 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,684 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,252,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This trade represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 43,631 shares of company stock worth $3,688,460. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Down 2.0 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $84.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.42, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $77.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.94. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted 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 company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

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

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.