BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Lowers Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lessened its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 13.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,304,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 643,045 shares during the quarter. Ciena makes up 0.7% of BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $265,133,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of CIEN opened at $66.50 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $64.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The company has a market capitalization of $9.60 billion, a PE ratio of 70.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.20 and a fifty-two week high of $73.47.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions 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 stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup raised Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently 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.