Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 30.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 332,668 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 148,817 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.23% of Ciena worth $20,489,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its position in Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 241.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $88.44 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $43.30 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $72.68 and a 200 day moving average of $60.28. The firm has a market cap of $12.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.09, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared 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 reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $772,026. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.