First Business Financial Services Inc. Acquires 3,300 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

First Business Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,361 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the period. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Ciena by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% during the 1st 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 during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $69.71 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $63.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.43. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $73.47. The stock has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 74.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.80 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.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.