Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Grows Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 10.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,198 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,336 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Ciena were worth $2,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,664,066 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,334,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 44.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 48,883 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,021,000 after buying an additional 14,946 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new position in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,403,000. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ciena by 70.3% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 47,929 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,952,000 after acquiring an additional 19,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ciena by 0.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,850,000 after acquiring an additional 6,605 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $63.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI lowered 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CIEN opened at $71.06 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $66.63 and a 200-day moving average of $56.25. The stock has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 75.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.95. 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 fifty-two week low of $42.20 and a fifty-two week high of $73.47.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $928.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Activity at Ciena

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

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.