Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Acquired by Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.

Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 23.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 370,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 70,000 shares during the quarter. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.26% of Ciena worth $22,788,000 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. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after acquiring an additional 2,943,146 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Ciena by 24.0% during 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 17.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after purchasing an additional 301,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was 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 owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, 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 0.00 % decrease in their position. 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $66.05 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $52.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.49 billion, a PE ratio of 63.51, a PEG ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a 1 year low of $39.94 and a 1 year high of $69.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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