Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Sells 1,791 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division cut its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 15.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,001 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,791 shares during the quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Ciena were worth $848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th 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 during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP grew its stake in Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $83.61 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.88 billion, a PE ratio of 88.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $43.30 and a 52 week high of $91.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $74.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.84. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Dino Diperna sold 2,682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.64, for a total value of $235,050.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,435,197.48. This trade represents a 5.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,971 shares of company stock valued at $871,799 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.