Creative Planning Has $894,000 Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Creative Planning boosted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 65.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,717 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Ciena were worth $894,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Ciena by 339.5% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $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.

Ciena Stock Up 0.7 %

Ciena stock opened at $63.95 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $42.17 and a twelve month high of $69.91. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $61.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.90. The company has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.03, a P/E/G ratio of 8.46 and a beta of 0.94. 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 results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CIEN. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena 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.