Marshall Wace LLP Acquires New Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,200 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position 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 worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after buying an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ciena by 7,767.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after buying an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP grew its holdings in Ciena by 118.7% during the 1st quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $75,378,000 after acquiring an additional 827,352 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $502,953. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.92.

Ciena Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $68.47 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $69.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $56.80 and its 200 day moving average is $51.08. The firm has a market cap of $9.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.84, a PEG ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Ciena

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.