LMR Partners LLP Takes $17.24 Million Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 279,853 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,236,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its position in Ciena by 119.9% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ciena by 17.2% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Ciena by 7,767.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Citigroup raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN stock opened at $67.22 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $63.80 and its 200-day moving average is $54.69. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $73.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a PE ratio of 71.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.