Royce & Associates LP Takes $7.30 Million Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Royce & Associates LP acquired a new stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 118,588 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,304,000. Royce & Associates LP owned about 0.08% of Ciena as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at about $215,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in Ciena by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 152,529 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $8,011,000 after purchasing an additional 5,351 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Ciena by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 18,582 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $919,000 after buying an additional 3,425 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth $1,911,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 339.5% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CIEN shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.08.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

NYSE:CIEN traded down $0.64 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $66.58. 1,210,735 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,803,945. The firm has a market cap of $9.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. The stock's fifty 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

About Ciena

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.