2,504 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Purchased by Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC

Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,504 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Down 1.1 %

CIEN stock traded down $0.93 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $81.32. 297,492 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,672,934. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $43.30 and a 52-week high of $91.82. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $76.79 and a 200-day moving average of $63.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.51, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In related news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the transaction, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value 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 approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 47,131 shares of company stock worth $3,924,465 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.