Barclays PLC Sells 47,615 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Barclays PLC lowered its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 31.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 101,417 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 47,615 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $6,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after buying an additional 2,943,146 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 428.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 886,354 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,705,000 after purchasing an additional 718,551 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at about $40,416,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $772,026. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $85.79 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.12 and a 1 year high of $91.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The firm has a market cap of $12.39 billion, a PE ratio of 91.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.88.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CIEN shares. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

About Ciena

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.