Citigroup Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Citigroup Inc. lowered its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 8.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 237,977 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 22,742 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $14,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after buying an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 17.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after buying an additional 301,390 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after buying an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 1,709,023 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $82,341,000 after buying an additional 56,513 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley downgraded 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. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $69.17 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $9.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.67. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $73.47. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.