North Growth Management Ltd. Grows Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

North Growth Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 531,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the quarter. Ciena makes up approximately 6.2% of North Growth Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. North Growth Management Ltd. owned 0.37% of Ciena worth $32,677,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Ciena by 4.6% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,404 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 5.4% in 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 during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP bought a new position in Ciena during the third quarter worth $25,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI downgraded 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of 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. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of 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. Barclays raised their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $72.04 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.64, a P/E/G ratio of 5.84 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. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $62.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.03. Ciena Co. has a 52 week low of $42.20 and a 52 week high of $73.47.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly 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. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are 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.