Primecap Management Co. CA Purchases 5,000 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 4.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 127,500 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in Ciena were worth $7,853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,961,513 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $222,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $242,000. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 372.8% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 36,744 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after buying an additional 28,972 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.0% in the first quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 21,776 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE CIEN opened at $70.13 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.45 and a beta of 0.94. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $65.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.28. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $73.47.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, 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 a total of 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.