Natixis Advisors LLC Has $9.35 Million Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 549.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 151,747 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 128,392 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned 0.11% of Ciena worth $9,346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in Ciena in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Ciena by 339.5% during the first 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. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 241.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction 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 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 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $68.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.52, a PEG ratio of 5.45 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $42.20 and a twelve month high of $73.47. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.13.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.