Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Holdings Lifted by First Horizon Advisors Inc.

First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $52,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.6% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $14,744,000 after purchasing an additional 130,399 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7.3% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 16,327 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,006,000 after purchasing an additional 1,116 shares in the last quarter. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Ciena by 156.3% during the third quarter. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. now owns 11,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $703,000 after buying an additional 6,960 shares during the period. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth about $17,236,000. Finally, Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 133,856 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,244,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $70.13 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $65.21 and its 200-day moving average is $55.37. The firm has a market cap of $10.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.61, a P/E/G ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $73.47.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 1.68 % 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 Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.