New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 18,833 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 11.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 151,019 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 18,833 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Ciena were worth $9,301,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $63.97 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The firm has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.31 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.17 and a fifty-two week high of $69.91. The business has a 50-day moving average of $61.11 and a 200 day moving average of $52.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note 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 on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average 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.