Cerity Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 70.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 47,929 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 19,785 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,952,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during 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, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 241.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $69.72 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $66.47 and a 200 day moving average of $56.00. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $73.47. The company has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 74.17, a P/E/G ratio of 5.62 and a beta of 0.94. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock 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 for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

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.