Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 1,108.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,867 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 38,402 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,579,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Ciena during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during 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 during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in Ciena during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Ciena by 339.5% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,213 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 937 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ciena Stock Down 1.1 %

Ciena stock opened at $63.24 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.28, a P/E/G ratio of 8.31 and a beta of 0.94. 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 $69.91.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. Ciena’s revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Activity at Ciena

In related news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total value of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were 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 trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on CIEN. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.