Raymond James & Associates Lowers Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Raymond James & Associates decreased its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 20.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 43,939 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 11,355 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Ciena were worth $2,706,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the second quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Ciena by 339.5% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN opened at $65.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.15. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $69.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.51 billion, a PE ratio of 68.83, a P/E/G ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. Company 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.