Perpetual Ltd Sells 760 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Perpetual Ltd decreased its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 357,079 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 760 shares during the quarter. Perpetual Ltd owned about 0.25% of Ciena worth $21,992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new stake in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Up 3.4 %

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $67.44 on Thursday. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $39.94 and a 52-week high of $68.31. 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 $9.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.85, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $56.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. Analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.92.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $10,368,269.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at $10,368,269.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, 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 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock worth $502,953 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.