First Business Financial Services Inc. Buys 3,300 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

First Business Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 18.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,361 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the period. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter worth $215,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its position in Ciena by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 152,529 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,011,000 after purchasing an additional 5,351 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its stake 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 worth $919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth about $1,911,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 2.4 %

CIEN stock opened at $69.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.16, a PEG ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.43. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Ciena Co. has a twelve month low of $42.20 and a twelve month high of $73.47.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm 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 firm posted $0.36 EPS. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research 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 buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions 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 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 $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value 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 approximately $13,485,797.71. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

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.