Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Takes Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 4,206 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $259,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter worth about $222,000. Fulton Bank N.A. grew its stake in Ciena by 16.7% in the second quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 7,315 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $352,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ciena by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $167,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 50.5% in the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 26,087 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,257,000 after buying an additional 8,751 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 698.9% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,561 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $509,000 after buying an additional 9,239 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $71.06 on Wednesday. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $66.63 and a 200 day moving average of $56.25. The firm has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 75.60, a PEG ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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 directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 in the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays lifted their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

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.