Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV Has $8.42 Million Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV cut its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 13.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 99,230 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 15,402 shares during the quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV owned approximately 0.07% of Ciena worth $8,416,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Ciena by 424.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in Ciena by 152.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ciena by 241.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,424 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce L. Claflin sold 16,912 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.96, for a total value of $1,436,843.52. Following the sale, the director now owns 59,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,042,121.12. The trade was a 22.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 47,131 shares of company stock worth $3,924,465. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Northland Securities raised their price objective on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Ciena in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI cut Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Ciena Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $82.22 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.89. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $76.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.83.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board 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 purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.