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

Impax Asset Management Group plc decreased its holdings in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 23.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 211,064 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 65,000 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc owned 0.15% of Ciena worth $12,999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hoese & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Ciena during the third quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CIEN. Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a 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 for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $67.23 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 $73.47. The company has a market cap of $9.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.52, a PEG ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $63.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $54.57.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 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 company had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research 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 buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the communications equipment provider to reacquire up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This represents a 1.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.