First Hawaiian Bank Cuts Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

First Hawaiian Bank lessened its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 10.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,280 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,397 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ciena by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Ciena by 2.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Ciena by 925.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $82.22 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $91.82. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $76.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.83.

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). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” 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 report on Friday, December 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. This trade represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 47,131 shares of company stock valued at $3,924,465. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.