GAMMA Investing LLC Raises Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 27.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,109 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 458 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $179,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,408,014 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $148,348,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares in the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the second quarter valued at $5,039,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $1,988,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Ciena by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its holdings in Ciena by 119.6% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 239,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $14,744,000 after buying an additional 130,399 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 $82.22 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $76.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $91.82.

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 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 analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total transaction of $1,137,776.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares in the company, valued at $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 47,131 shares of company stock worth $3,924,465. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CIEN shares. Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley cut 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 lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena 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.