Pacifica Partners Inc. Has $2.19 Million Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Pacifica Partners Inc. trimmed its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 160 shares during the period. Pacifica Partners Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,193,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new position in Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $170,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 212,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,368,269.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock worth $502,953 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted 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. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective 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. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.38.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $63.59 on Tuesday. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $39.94 and a twelve month high of $66.78. The stock has a market cap of $9.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.14, a P/E/G ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day moving average is $55.48 and its 200 day moving average is $50.60.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.