Smithfield Trust Co Reduces Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Smithfield Trust Co trimmed its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,730 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 269 shares during the quarter. Smithfield Trust Co’s holdings in Ciena were worth $168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in Ciena by 339.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CIEN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted 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, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $68.17 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.13. Ciena Co. has a 12 month low of $42.20 and a 12 month high of $73.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.52, a PEG ratio of 5.45 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.99.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.