Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Sells 190 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 2.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,383 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 190 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $577,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CIEN. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 35.5% during the 3rd quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 28,506 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,756,000 after acquiring an additional 7,473 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $1,988,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Ciena in the third quarter valued at $128,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS raised its holdings in shares of Ciena by 0.6% during the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 320,215 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $19,722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,775 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth about $289,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CIEN. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of 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. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $67.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.06. The company has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.52, a PEG ratio of 5.80 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $73.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.57.

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

Ciena announced that its board has initiated 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 purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 1.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123 in the last ninety days. 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.