Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Has $19.72 Million Stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its stake in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 320,215 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,775 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS owned about 0.22% of Ciena worth $19,722,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CIEN. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 119.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,397,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $260,054,000 after purchasing an additional 2,943,146 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Ciena by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,706,308 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $130,392,000 after buying an additional 523,313 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Ciena by 1,944.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,062,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,513 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ciena by 17.2% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $98,743,000 after acquiring an additional 301,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ciena by 7,767.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,966,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,742,000 after buying an additional 1,941,419 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 205,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $196,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 205,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,552,877.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,604,752.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock valued at $568,123. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays increased their target price on Ciena from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Ciena from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Ciena Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of CIEN traded up $0.42 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $68.92. The company had a trading volume of 28,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,798,393. Ciena Co. has a 52-week low of $42.20 and a 52-week high of $69.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.90, a P/E/G ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 0.94. 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 (NYSE:CIEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan 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 plans are typically an indication that the company’s board 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.