Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Sells 10,225 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P reduced its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 443,927 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 10,225 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Ciena were worth $27,342,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings 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 valued at $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $222,000. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 372.8% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 36,744 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 28,972 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Ciena by 4.0% in the first quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 21,776 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lumbard & Kellner LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,223,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $70.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $73.47. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.52. The firm has a market cap of $10.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.61, a PEG ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target 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. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena Company 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.