GAMMA Investing LLC Buys 458 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 27.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,109 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $179,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP increased its stake in Ciena by 118.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Ciena Stock Up 0.4 %

CIEN opened at $82.22 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $76.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.69. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $43.30 and a twelve month high of $91.82. The company has a market cap of $11.68 billion, a PE ratio of 87.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 47,131 shares of company stock valued at $3,924,465. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.