Systematic Financial Management LP Lowers Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Systematic Financial Management LP cut its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 57,515 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 620 shares during the quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,771,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Creative Planning lifted its position in Ciena by 13.7% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 8,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter valued at about $5,039,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 490.2% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 50,062 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,412,000 after acquiring an additional 41,580 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 640.7% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 64,466 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,106,000 after acquiring an additional 55,763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maverick Capital Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the second quarter valued at about $1,727,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ciena Trading Down 1.0 %

CIEN opened at $61.81 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $8.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.43, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $53.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.01. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24. 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 Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on CIEN. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Raymond James downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. B. Riley decreased their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.00.

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.