Kieckhefer Group LLC Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 700 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $59,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CIEN. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.83 on Monday, reaching $81.42. 292,041 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,672,934. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $76.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.29. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.30 and a fifty-two week high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total transaction of $1,436,843.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. This represents a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 47,131 shares of company stock worth $3,924,465 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CIEN. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

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.