Impax Asset Management Group plc Cuts Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Impax Asset Management Group plc lowered its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 23.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 211,064 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 65,000 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc’s holdings in Ciena were worth $12,999,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,513 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941,419 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 1st quarter valued at about $48,214,000. Finally, Rokos Capital Management LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 118.7% in the 1st quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,524,332 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $75,378,000 after purchasing an additional 827,352 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CIEN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup raised shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

CIEN opened at $67.23 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.57. 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 1 year low of $42.20 and a 1 year high of $73.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a PE ratio of 71.52, a P/E/G ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its 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 analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase 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 purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total transaction of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. 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.