Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 868 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 12.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,023 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 868 shares during the quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1,171.4% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,161,000 after purchasing an additional 41,326 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth about $661,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter worth about $5,039,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,499,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $72,223,000 after purchasing an additional 181,358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 372.8% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 36,744 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,817,000 after purchasing an additional 28,972 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 1.1 %

CIEN opened at $64.63 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.76, a PEG ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $41.37 and a one year high of $69.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced 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. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS 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

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CIEN. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

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.