Perpetual Ltd Has $30.09 Million Stock Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Perpetual Ltd lessened its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 354,746 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,333 shares during the quarter. Perpetual Ltd owned approximately 0.25% of Ciena worth $30,086,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 3.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Ciena by 2.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,307 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Ciena by 59.2% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 718 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted 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 period. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $84.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of 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 report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE CIEN opened at $84.96 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.06, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.84. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $43.30 and a 12 month high of $91.82.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 192,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,781 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,500 in the last 90 days. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.