Oak Thistle LLC Takes Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,900 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $755,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 26.4% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,647 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $513,000 after buying an additional 2,227 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 42.2% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 223,051 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $10,747,000 after acquiring an additional 66,214 shares during the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at $729,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Ciena by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $130,392,000 after purchasing an additional 523,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lumbard & Kellner LLC boosted its stake in Ciena by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Lumbard & Kellner LLC now owns 65,799 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $3,170,000 after purchasing an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CIEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ciena from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Ciena from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $77.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. This represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total value of $311,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 43,631 shares of company stock valued at $3,688,460. Insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Ciena stock traded down $1.67 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $84.03. 1,351,683 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,691,081. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The business's 50-day moving average is $77.86 and its 200-day moving average is $63.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.94 billion, a PE ratio of 147.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.10 billion. Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. Ciena's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is 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.