First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Sells 329 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lowered its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,178 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 329 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. BNP Paribas acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at about $994,000. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ciena by 0.6% during the first quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 136,274 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,739,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $543,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,026,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 71.2% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,805 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $188,000 after buying an additional 1,583 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock opened at $63.95 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 68.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.46 and a beta of 0.94. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.90. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.17 and a fifty-two week high of $69.91.

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

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CIEN. Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut 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 research note 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

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.