Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Sells 231,551 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 11.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,735,959 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 231,551 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. owned 1.20% of Ciena worth $106,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position 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 valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CIEN shares. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $0.02 on Monday, reaching $71.89. 862,328 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,806,970. The firm's 50 day moving average is $62.21 and its 200-day moving average is $53.85. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. 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 firm has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a PE ratio of 76.34, a P/E/G ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board believes its shares are 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.