Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Has $27.34 Million Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P trimmed its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 443,927 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 10,225 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned approximately 0.31% of Ciena worth $27,342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena during the third quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in 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 buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 241.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total transaction of $135,278.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051. Insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena stock opened at $70.13 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $65.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.52. The company has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.61, a PEG ratio of 5.70 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. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CIEN shares. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ciena has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

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.