Quarry LP Buys 854 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 854 shares during the period. Quarry LP’s holdings in Ciena were worth $76,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Ciena by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $158,149,000 after acquiring an additional 791,215 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Ciena by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after acquiring an additional 523,313 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Ciena by 1,944.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $502,953 over the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Up 7.4 %

Ciena stock opened at $66.01 on Thursday. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $66.30. The company has a market cap of $9.49 billion, a PE ratio of 63.47, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. 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 $54.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.28.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. B. Riley dropped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Raymond James downgraded Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.00.

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.