Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN – Free Report) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,960 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $421,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $57,861,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 718,551 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,416,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,403,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth approximately $17,236,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities raised their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.
Ciena Stock Up 3.8 %
CIEN opened at $98.44 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $80.06 and a 200-day moving average of $65.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 172.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $100.92.
Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.
Ciena declared that its board has initiated a stock 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 buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.
Insider Activity at Ciena
In other news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brodie Gage sold 350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.91, for a total value of $30,068.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,256,582.77. This trade represents a 0.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.
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.
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