Paloma Partners Management Co Boosts Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Paloma Partners Management Co raised its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 283.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 36,970 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co’s holdings in Ciena were worth $3,080,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena during the second quarter worth about $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Ciena by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 854 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, October 28th. 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Price Performance

Ciena stock opened at $69.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. Ciena Co. has a one year low of $42.20 and a one year high of $73.47. The company has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day moving average of $66.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.05.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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