Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 12,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $578,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 0.9% during the first quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 26,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,300,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 17.4% in the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 514 shares during the period. Lumbard & Kellner LLC increased its position in Ciena by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC now owns 65,799 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,170,000 after buying an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in Ciena by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 30,862 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,487,000 after buying an additional 632 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on CIEN. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, B. Riley decreased their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 7th. 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 MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.15.

Ciena Stock Up 1.3 %

Ciena 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 stock has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a PE ratio of 56.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $39.94 and a fifty-two week high of $63.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.68.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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 company had revenue of $942.30 million during 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%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal 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.