Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Sells 102,513 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lessened its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 30.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 229,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 102,513 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned about 0.16% of Ciena worth $19,448,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at $59,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CIEN. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas cut 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. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $94.82 on Thursday. 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 $13.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 166.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.35. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $43.30 and a one year high of $95.27.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total transaction of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 49,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. The trade was a 0.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500 over the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.