Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Cuts Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund cut its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 89.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 591 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,993 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Ciena were worth $28,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the first quarter worth approximately $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 339.5% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN opened at $65.25 on Wednesday. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $39.94 and a one year high of $66.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.74, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents 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 three months. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Ciena from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded 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. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.38.

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.