Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 30.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 332,668 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 148,817 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $20,489,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, 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 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 in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $71.44 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $10.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.32.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results 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 company 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 business’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.