Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Sells 39,177 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 93.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,690 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 39,177 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $228,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in Ciena by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded 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 note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their target price on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 1.3 %

CIEN stock opened at $83.34 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $11.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.66, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $43.30 and a 1-year high of $91.82. The business’s 50 day moving average is $77.17 and its 200-day moving average is $63.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 5,648 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.64, for a total transaction of $478,046.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,300,073.92. This trade represents a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 43,631 shares of company stock worth $3,688,460 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.