Ciena stock rose slightly on Wednesday after the maker of optical communications gear reported fiscal third-quarter profit and revenue that fell from a year earlier but topped consensus estimates. The company offered a peek at fiscal 2025 guidance.
"Management reaffirmed fiscal 2024 top-line guidance, largely quelling fears that previous guidance may have been too aggressive," said Barclays analyst Tim Long in a report. "Management remained coy on fiscal 2025 high-level expectations, though asserted a 6% to 8% long-term growth rate is still appropriate for the business."
At Raymond James, analyst Simon Leopold said in a report: "Ciena exceeded quarterly expectations; the outlook was slightly below consensus and initial comments on fiscal 2025 were uninformative beyond the reaffirmation that 6% to 8% revenue growth is still the long-term target."
Ciena Stock: Telecom Business Slows
For the quarter ending July 31, Ciena earnings dropped 41% to 35 cents a share on an adjusted basis. Revenue fell 12% to $942.3 million.
Analysts expected the Hannover, Md.-based company to earn 26 cents a share on sales of $928.3 million.
Ciena's fiber optics gear is built into telecom networks and cloud computing data centers operated by internet giants. Telecom customers have been ordering less network gear. However, the data center business has been a bright spot.
On the stock market today, Ciena stock rose 0.7% to 55.77 in afternoon trading.
Shares had climbed 26% in 2024 prior to the Ciena earnings report. In addition, Ciena stock owned a Relative Strength Rating of 79 out of a best-possible 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup.
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