Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Boosts Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 24.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 1.88% of Ciena worth $130,392,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 339.5% during 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 during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Performance

CIEN stock opened at $58.73 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The firm has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.47, a PEG ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $63.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.68.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Raymond James lowered shares of Ciena from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $59.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Barclays raised their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.29, for a total transaction of $130,962.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,635,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,712 shares of company stock valued at $498,637 in the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.