34,151 Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Bought by Seizert Capital Partners LLC

Seizert Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 34,151 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,103,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Ciena by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Ciena by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123 in the last three months. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley downgraded Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Down 3.6 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $67.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. The company's fifty day moving average price is $63.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.63. The company has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.51, a PEG ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's board 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.

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