Pacer Advisors Inc. Increases Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,941,419 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned approximately 1.37% of Ciena worth $94,742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Ciena by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,513,633 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,149,000 after acquiring an additional 791,215 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 1,709,023 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $82,341,000 after purchasing an additional 56,513 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. B. Riley dropped their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.15.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.81, for a total transaction of $170,835.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 212,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,712 shares of company stock valued at $498,637 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock opened at $58.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $63.24. The company has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $52.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.77.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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.