Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Sells 9,175 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio cut its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,897 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 9,175 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio owned approximately 0.06% of Ciena worth $5,167,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. FMR LLC boosted its position in Ciena by 0.5% during 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 during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Ciena by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,439,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $273,427,000 after acquiring an additional 53,078 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Ciena by 24.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Ciena by 17.2% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $68.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.86. The stock has a market cap of $12.96 billion, a PE ratio of 157.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.95. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $91.25.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Barclays raised their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

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.