Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. Buys New Shares in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 656,196 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $40,416,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. owned 0.45% of Ciena as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the third quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Ciena during the first quarter valued at $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in Ciena by 339.5% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

CIEN opened at $67.22 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $63.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.63. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $73.47. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $9.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.51, a PEG ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities 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 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 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 $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on CIEN. Evercore ISI cut 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 reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ciena from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $63.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.08.

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.

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