LMR Partners LLP Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

LMR Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 279,853 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $17,236,000. LMR Partners LLP owned approximately 0.19% of Ciena at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $215,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in Ciena by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 152,529 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $8,011,000 after acquiring an additional 5,351 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 22.6% during the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 18,582 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,425 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,911,000. 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 worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business's 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 directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $1.06 during trading on Monday, reaching $66.16. The company's stock had a trading volume of 691,118 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,801,455. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $73.47. The firm has a market cap of $9.56 billion, a PE ratio of 71.51, a P/E/G ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. The business's 50-day moving average price is $63.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays increased their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price 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.