Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Makes New Investment in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,206 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $259,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Eventide Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $2,249,000. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in Ciena by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 7,951 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,775 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 541,097 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,326,000 after buying an additional 110,789 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Ciena by 10.8% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 34,198 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,106,000 after buying an additional 3,336 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew 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 worth $1,334,290,000 after buying an additional 108,407 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN opened at $71.06 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $66.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.25. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $42.20 and a 12-month high of $73.47. The firm 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 current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $928.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. Ciena’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CIEN. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup upgraded 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 note on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ciena news, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total value of $88,928.11. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 91,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051 over the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.