Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 4.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,716,024 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 113,386 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned about 1.88% of Ciena worth $167,280,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Ciena by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew 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 valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,169 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of CIEN stock traded down $2.53 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $67.22. 1,611,781 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,660,872. The firm has a market cap of $9.71 billion, a PE ratio of 71.51, a PEG ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $73.47. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $63.80 and a 200 day moving average of $54.69.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors 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 reacquire up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities reaffirmed 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 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena 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.