Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Sold by Sora Investors LLC

Sora Investors LLC decreased its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 100,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 100,000 shares during the period. Sora Investors LLC owned about 0.07% of Ciena worth $6,159,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CIEN. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $167,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 50.5% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 26,087 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,257,000 after acquiring an additional 8,751 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 698.9% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,561 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 9,239 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 1,171.4% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,161,000 after acquiring an additional 41,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 55.5% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 10,441 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $503,000 after purchasing an additional 3,725 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock worth $657,051 over the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $72.23 on Friday. 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 fifty-two week low of $42.20 and a fifty-two week high of $73.49. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $67.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.52. The stock has a market cap of $10.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 0.95.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Ciena from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.38.

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.