Rockland Trust Co. Cuts Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Rockland Trust Co. lessened its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,128 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $350,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $755,000. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 35,710 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,986,000 after purchasing an additional 4,235 shares in the last quarter. Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $212,000. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 8,279 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $702,000 after purchasing an additional 861 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares in the company, valued at $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 43,631 shares of company stock worth $3,688,460 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised their target price on Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $85.87 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $12.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.35, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $77.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.78. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82.

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

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback 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 repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.