E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Has $5.99 Million Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) by 56.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 97,287 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 34,906 shares during the period. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB owned approximately 0.07% of Ciena worth $5,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ciena by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 370,000 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $22,788,000 after acquiring an additional 70,000 shares during the period. Tectonic Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth approximately $3,562,000. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter worth approximately $664,000. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted 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. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Ciena by 399.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,902 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ciena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Insider Transactions at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction 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 represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of Ciena stock traded down $1.92 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $64.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,063,185 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,818,862. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $52.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.51, a PEG ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. 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 Co. has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $69.91.

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

Ciena announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to buy up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.