Atria Investments Inc Makes New $1.99 Million Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 32,283 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,988,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $128,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its holdings in Ciena by 0.6% during the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 320,215 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $19,722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,775 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $289,000. Vestor Capital LLC lifted its stake in Ciena by 92.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vestor Capital LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 1,108.3% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 41,867 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,579,000 after buying an additional 38,402 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays lifted their price target on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CIEN traded down $2.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $67.38. The stock had a trading volume of 708,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,802,412. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $63.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.43. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $73.47. The company has a market capitalization of $9.73 billion, a PE ratio of 74.16, a P/E/G ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm's revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $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.