CIBC Asset Management Inc Acquires New Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

CIBC Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,243 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 119.9% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after buying an additional 301,390 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on CIEN. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $70.13 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $65.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.28. The stock has a market cap of $10.13 billion, a PE ratio of 74.61, a P/E/G ratio of 5.45 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. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47.

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

Ciena announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are 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.