US Bancorp DE Increases Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 244 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Ciena were worth $635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Ciena by 53.1% during the third quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 114,632 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,060,000 after buying an additional 39,754 shares during the period. Trajan Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $245,000. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ciena by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,023 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $530,000 after acquiring an additional 868 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 6.1% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 16,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,028,000 after purchasing an additional 955 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 1.7% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 819,309 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $50,461,000 after purchasing an additional 13,361 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI cut shares of 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. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena 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 directly owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, 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 Up 2.3 %

NYSE:CIEN opened at $71.91 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.85. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $72.36. The company has a market cap of $10.39 billion, a PE ratio of 76.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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