Covestor Ltd Sells 1,308 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Covestor Ltd decreased its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 66.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 659 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,308 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Ciena were worth $41,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 1,171.4% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,161,000 after purchasing an additional 41,326 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $661,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,039,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Ciena by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,499,035 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $72,223,000 after purchasing an additional 181,358 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 372.8% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 36,744 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after purchasing an additional 28,972 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut 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. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $67.23 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $63.80 and its 200-day moving average is $54.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $73.47. The firm has a market cap of $9.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.52, a P/E/G ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are 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.