PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Buys 1,116 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 16,327 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,116 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Ciena were worth $1,006,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of CIEN. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $222,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in Ciena by 372.8% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 36,744 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 28,972 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 4.0% during the first quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 21,776 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the first quarter valued at approximately $341,000. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Ciena during the first quarter worth approximately $48,214,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley downgraded 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. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Ciena from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,485,797.71. The trade was a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,139.14. This trade represents a 3.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,489 shares of company stock valued at $657,051. 0.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ciena Stock Down 2.4 %

CIEN stock opened at $69.17 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $9.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.59, a P/E/G ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.67. Ciena Co. has a 1-year low of $42.20 and a 1-year high of $73.47.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Ciena declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.