Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Smithfield Trust Co

Smithfield Trust Co reduced its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,730 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 269 shares during the period. Smithfield Trust Co’s holdings in Ciena were worth $168,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted 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 purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in 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 worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP increased 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 purchasing an additional 827,352 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on CIEN. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $68.17 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 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 $73.47. The stock has a market cap of $9.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.52, a P/E/G ratio of 5.45 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.13.

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

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management 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.