Vestor Capital LLC Increases Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Vestor Capital LLC increased its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 92.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,700 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the quarter. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Ciena by 1,944.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after buying an additional 1,961,513 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after buying an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 118.7% during the 1st quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after buying an additional 827,352 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CIEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays lifted their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % 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. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ciena Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $63.97 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The firm has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 68.05, a PEG ratio of 8.31 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $42.17 and a 1 year high of $69.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.