Royce & Associates LP Takes $7.30 Million Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Royce & Associates LP acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 118,588 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,304,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its stake in Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 854 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $67.22 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.69. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $73.47. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value 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. The trade was a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

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.