Ciena
Ciena makes the equipment that sends data as light through fibre between data centres and across telecom networks.
The scores
Growth3/4 ↑
Revenue up 37% in Q3 fiscal 2026 and 19% in fiscal 2025, but narrowing to cloud buyers, two at 42%, after a fiscal 2024 fall.
Business quality3/4 ↑
Installed line systems and a 1.6-terabit modem lead give real share gains, but Nokia co-leads and pluggables lower switching costs.
Financial position4/4 ↑
Net debt about $431M against $739M of trailing operating profit, debt at 0% and 4%, nothing due before 2030.
Execution record3/4 ↑
Beat and raised in each of the last four quarters, lifting the fiscal 2026 guide from $5.9B to $6.42B, but fiscal 2024 revenue fell 8.5%.
Per share capture3/4 →
Buybacks roughly match share pay, though the count still rose 0.7%; the convertible is hedged to $746.66 and warrants dilute above $1,000.
Potential2/4 ↑
A cloud market of about $6.1B growing fast, but only $2.5B of orders is binding and the rest depends on two buyers.
Risk profile3/4 →
One serious concentration: two cloud providers are 41.7% of revenue and contracts carry no minimum purchases.
Valuation2/4 ↑
Paying 75.7 times trailing operating profit needs the 2029 plan delivered in full, then a full price for each dollar of peak profit.
Evidence quality3/4 →
Figures are filed and the market measured by Dell'Oro, but the backlog, share and 2029 plan are management's words.
The Verdict
We rate Ciena neutral. It makes the equipment that sends data as light through fibre between data centres, and the AI build-out has made it one of the busiest suppliers in networking. The business is solid, though two cloud buyers take a large share of sales and some orders are customers ordering early in a shortage. The price is full, not cheap: it is about right only if management's long-term plan arrives in full, with little cushion if growth or margins fall short. The view hinges on whether orders keep rising once parts stop being scarce. Demand is real; the price simply asks for all of it.
The long caseAI data centres are being linked across cities, multiplying the traffic Ciena's optical gear carries; orders must keep rising once parts stop being scarce.
The evidence under this - 8 claims
Only $2.5B of it is non-cancelable remaining performance obligation (C08), and the 10-K says part of the backlog growth reflects constrained supply rather than demand (C40).
Three years of 30% growth from about $6.42B is about $14.1B in fiscal 2029, nearly three times fiscal 2025, in a market Dell'Oro forecasts at about $18B for 2026 (C16).
At 15 times instead of 18 the same plan is worth about $49.6B, below today's value; analysts' average target of $482 implies they see more than the plan (C32).
The company
When a cloud company runs AI across several buildings, or a phone company carries traffic between cities, the data travels as light down fibre. Ciena makes the boxes that put the data onto the light, called modems, and the amplifiers and switches along the route, called line systems.
Its newest modem carries 1.6 terabits on one colour of light, and management says it is still the only one that does. Dell'Oro, an industry research firm, counts Ciena among the four vendors that sell over 80% of this equipment worldwide.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
Nokia, after buying Infinera, claims the number two optical position and supplies 9 of the top 10 hyperscalers (C18); no outside measurer was found confirming the 1.6-terabit claim.
How it makes money
Ciena earns most of its money selling equipment: optical gear was 71.3% of sales in Q3 fiscal 2026. A cloud company or phone company buys a line system for a route, then keeps buying modems as traffic grows, and pays Ciena to install and support it.
The buyers are few and large. Cloud companies were 53% of the quarter's sales, and two of them alone bought 41.7%.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
The 10-Q does not report cloud revenue as a whole; what it does report is that two customers alone are 41.7% (C05), so the cloud share rests on few buyers.
Where the money comes from, stream by stream
| Stream | Share of sales (Q3 FY2026) | How it earns it |
|---|---|---|
| Optical Networking | 71.3% | Packet-optical platforms, Waveserver, RLS line systems and coherent pluggables, sold as hardware once delivered. |
| Global Services | 11.6% | Maintenance and support, installation and network advice, mostly billed over time. |
| Routing and Switching | 9.8% | Routers and switches for metro and access networks, sold as hardware. |
| Platform Software and Services | 5.9% | Software that runs Ciena's equipment, sold as licences and subscriptions. |
| Blue Planet automation | 1.4% | Network automation software and services sold to operators, partly as subscriptions. |
Who runs it
Gary Smith has run Ciena since 2001; Marc Graff took over the finances in 2025. Insiders own well under 1% of the company, so management's stake is small. Most of the bonus rides on sales and adjusted profit, and over a third of the chief executive's share awards on orders won in a single year, which a shortage can pull forward. Nothing pays on cash collected.
The evidence under this - 3 claims
Insiders sold 324,436 shares in the year to September 2026, nearly all under 10b5-1 plans (C35), so the group's holding is likely smaller now than the proxy table shows.
- The PSUs pay on sales orders in a year when the 10-K says part of the backlog reflects customers ordering ahead of a shortage (C40), so the plan rewards bookings that may be pulled forward.
- No metric pays on cash conversion or return on capital.
Why it wins, and who could beat it
Why customers come back
Once Ciena's line system sits along a fibre route, the owner adds capacity by buying more modems for the same line. A rival has to rip out a working system to win the route, so the incumbent usually keeps it.
Management says its line system has about 70% of its market. Dell'Oro names Ciena and Nokia as the leaders in a segment that grew 80% in a year, and Ciena's optical sales grew 46.1% while the whole market grew 15%.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
Disaggregated line systems are built so that other vendors' modems and pluggables can run over them, which lowers the cost of switching modem vendor (C15, C20); Nokia is a co-leader (C14).
Dell'Oro names Ciena and Nokia together as the leading vendors of disaggregated line systems and publishes no share in its free summary (C14).
The threat
Nokia, which bought Infinera, says it is number two in optical and sells to 9 of the 10 biggest cloud companies. Pluggables, small modems that slot straight into a router, led by Cisco's Acacia and Marvell, can replace Ciena's boxes on shorter links. Google is reported to be building its own optics inside its data centres. Huawei leads the world but is barred from U.S. networks.
The evidence under this - 5 claims
Management gave no evidence Ciena is in Google's 2.4-terabit programme, and the question was answered with a market view rather than a win.
The rivals: NOK, CSCO, MRVL, DOX, NOW, GOOGL, ADTN, HPE, CRDO, AVGO, and 2 more that are private, in-house or listed abroad.
Who else does this, rival by rival
| Ticker | Rival | Where it competes | How far along | Priced against it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOK | Nokia Optical Networks, enlarged by InfineraPriced against it: Yes | Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | On sale | Yes |
| CSCO | Cisco Acacia coherent pluggablesPriced against it: One segment only | Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | On sale | One segment only |
| MRVL | Marvell coherent DSPs inside third-party pluggable modulesPriced against it: One segment only | Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | On sale | One segment only |
| Private | Huawei optical transportPriced against it: Private | Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | On sale | Private |
| ZTE optical transportPriced against it: Listed abroad | Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | On sale | Listed abroad | |
| DOX · NOW | Amdocs, ServiceNow and Netcracker network-automation softwarePriced against it: One segment only | Services and software | On sale | One segment only |
| GOOGL | Google's own coherent-lite optics inside its data centresPriced against it: Different product | Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | Announced | Different product |
| ADTN | ADTRAN HoldingsPriced against it: Yes | - | On sale | Yes |
| HPE | Hewlett Packard Enterprise CompanyPriced against it: One segment only | - | On sale | One segment only |
| CRDO | Credo Technology Group HoldingPriced against it: One segment only | - | On sale | One segment only |
| AVGO | BroadcomPriced against it: One segment only | - | On sale | One segment only |
How big it could get
How big this could get
Dell'Oro expects this equipment market to grow 16% in 2026 to more than $18B. Cloud companies buy 34% of it, about $6.1B, and North America, where Huawei and ZTE cannot sell, is more than 40%.
The spending behind it is enormous: Alphabet alone doubled its capital spending to $80.6B in the first half of 2026.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
Dell'Oro raised the forecast from 10% to 16% after one quarter and says supply limits growth, so the figure measures what can be shipped and moves with each quarter (C15).
Who has signed
Of the $8.5B backlog, only $2.5B is orders customers cannot cancel. Contracts carry no minimum purchases, and the annual report says part of the backlog reflects customers ordering ahead in a shortage.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
Only $2.5B of it is non-cancelable remaining performance obligation (C08), and the 10-K says part of the backlog growth reflects constrained supply rather than demand (C40).
Where the growth is coming from, business by business
Where the growth is coming from
| Business | Share of revenue | Growth: last quarter | Last half-year | Last year | Share in 3 years at its half-year rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) | 81% | +44.0% | +45.5% | +41.8% | 90% |
| Services and software | 19% | +13.5% | +13.9% | +13.2% | 10% |
| Whole company | 100% | +37.0% | +38.2% | +35.1% | 100% |
On the filed split through 2026-08-01, if each business keeps its last half-year's growth, the company grows about 40% next year and 42% in year 3, against 32.6% over the last twelve months. Networking Platforms (optical systems, coherent modems and pluggables, routing and switching) grows fastest: it grows 45% against 14% for the rest, and would be 90% of revenue by then. A scenario, not a forecast: no business holds its rate.
How we read it: Networking Platforms grows 45% against 14% for the rest, so the blend understates the core. The score holds at 3 because that core narrows to two cloud buyers after a fiscal 2024 decline.
The results
The numbers
Sales grew 33% over the twelve months to Aug 2026, faster than the 19% in the year to Nov 2025.
Operating margin is 12%, up from 8.2% in the year to Oct 2023.
Running costs take 32¢ of each sales dollar, down from 34¢ in the year to Oct 2021.
Each dollar put into the business earns 13% a year after tax, about where it was (14%) in the year to Oct 2021.
It turned 14% of sales into free cash, $814M over the last twelve months.
It owes $600M more than the cash it holds, about 0.6 years of the cash its operations bring in.
The share count fell 6.9% in 4.8 years, and pay in shares costs 3.5% of sales.
All the numbers
Filed figures from the company's 10-K and 10-Q, read 2026-10-04. Fiscal years end in November.
| Oct 2021 | Oct 2022 | Oct 2023 | Nov 2024 | Nov 2025 | 12 mo to Aug 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size and growth | ||||||
| Sales | $3.62B | $3.63B | $4.39B | $4.01B | $4.77B | $6.02B |
| Sales growth | +2.5% | +0.3% | +21% | −8.5% | +19% | +33% |
| Profit | ||||||
| Gross margin | 48% | 43% | 43% | 43% | 42% | 44% |
| Operating margin | 14% | 6.1% | 8.2% | 4.1% | 4.1% | 12% |
| Net margin | 14% | 4.2% | 5.8% | 2.1% | 2.6% | 11% |
| What growth costs, per sales dollar | ||||||
| Research and development | 15% | 17% | 17% | 19% | 18% | 15% |
| Sales and marketing | 12% | 13% | 11% | 13% | 12% | 10% |
| General and admin | 5.0% | 4.9% | 4.9% | 5.5% | 5.0% | 4.2% |
| Pay in shares | 2.3% | 2.9% | 3.0% | 3.9% | 3.9% | 3.5% |
| Capital spending | 2.2% | 2.5% | 2.4% | 3.4% | 3.0% | 4.0% |
| Cash | ||||||
| Cash from operations | $542M | −$168M | $168M | $515M | $806M | $1.05B |
| Free cash flow | $462M | −$259M | $62.1M | $378M | $665M | $814M |
| Balance sheet | ||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | $1.60B | $1.15B | $1.12B | $1.25B | $1.31B | $2.63B |
| Debt | $677M | $1.07B | $1.56B | $1.54B | $1.54B | $3.23B |
| Net cash | $927M | $80.3M | −$440M | −$294M | −$228M | −$600M |
| Returns and shares | ||||||
| Return on capital | 14% | 5.0% | 6.9% | 2.7% | 3.6% | 13% |
| Shares (diluted) | 157M | 152M | 149M | 146M | 145M | 146M |
What growth costs
Growth is making Ciena more profitable: research, selling and admin costs rise more slowly than sales, so each new sale costs less to win. Share pay and factory spending are growing faster than sales, and a falling year reverses the gain, as the last downturn showed.
The evidence under this - 1 claim
- In fiscal 2024, when revenue fell 8.5% (C02), every operating cost line rose per sales dollar, so the leverage runs both ways.
- Stock pay and capital spending grew faster than sales, and the tariff refunds in C04 flatter the recent gross margin.
The last report (3 Sep)
Quarter ended August 2026, filed figures.
In Q3 fiscal 2026, the quarter ended August 1, sales rose 37% to $1.67B, and optical sales grew 46.1%. Profit margins hit a record, helped a little by a one-off refund of tariffs.
Orders kept coming faster than Ciena could ship: backlog rose $800M to $8.5B, and management expects more than $10B by the end of October. It set a floor of 30% growth for fiscal 2027, saying supply, not demand, is the limit.
What it did to the thesisIt proved demand is real and still outrunning supply, which is the case for the business. It left open the question that decides the view: how much of the swelling backlog is customers ordering early in a shortage, and whether those orders hold once parts are plentiful.
The quarter in detail
Sales growth from the previous quarter, filed figures.
Earnings per share $2.11 against $1.73 expected; $1.83 as filed, the gap being what the company adds back.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
Only $2.5B of it is non-cancelable remaining performance obligation (C08), and the 10-K says part of the backlog growth reflects constrained supply rather than demand (C40).
In fiscal 2024 revenue fell 8.5% after customers digested inventory (C02), and the Q4 guide steps adjusted operating margin down to about 20% from Q3's 22.5% (C04).
What management did with the money
Insiders in 2026Q3: 0 purchases and 58 sales, from their Form 4 filings.
The price, and where we disagree
In short. Full. The price pays for management's 2029 plan arriving in full, with little room if growth or margins fall short.
The shares fell after each of the last four results, though every one beat forecasts and raised guidance. In June the worry was whether the AI trade had run its course; in September, that the next quarter's guide only matched forecasts.
So the stock sits 38.6% below its June high, and the price paid for each dollar of sales fell 25.5% in six months even as sales kept climbing. Two weeks after the September fall, management set targets for 2029.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
Three years of 30% growth from about $6.42B is about $14.1B in fiscal 2029, nearly three times fiscal 2025, in a market Dell'Oro forecasts at about $18B for 2026 (C16).
How we read the multiple
Counting its debt, buyers pay about 76 times the last year's operating profit. Working back from the 2029 targets:
- Sales grow about 30% a year to about $14.1B in fiscal 2029.
- A third of that becomes operating profit, roughly $4.4B after paying staff in shares.
- At 18 times profit, a mature company's price, that is worth about $59.5B today, discounting at 10% a year.
- Today's company value is about $56.0B, so the price assumes the plan arrives in full.
Against its own history. Far above where the company has usually traded, because profit margins have only just jumped and the price looks ahead to more.
The evidence under this - 4 claims
At 15 times instead of 18 the same plan is worth about $49.6B, below today's value; analysts' average target of $482 implies they see more than the plan (C32).
Three years of 30% growth from about $6.42B is about $14.1B in fiscal 2029, nearly three times fiscal 2025, in a market Dell'Oro forecasts at about $18B for 2026 (C16).
In fiscal 2024 revenue fell 8.5% after customers digested inventory (C02), and the Q4 guide steps adjusted operating margin down to about 20% from Q3's 22.5% (C04).
Priced against its rivals
The competitors its own annual report names, each confirmed against the rival's filing. Measured on company value for each $1 of cash profit, cheapest first:
| Ticker | Company | company value for each $1 of cash profit |
|---|---|---|
| ADTN | ADTRAN Holdings | 7.7× |
| NOK | Nokia Oyj | 23.0× |
| CIEN | Ciena | 50.9× |
The middle of the other 2 is 15.3. Ciena Corporation is dearest of 3.
Rivals' figures come from a data provider, so read the spread of the group rather than any single pair.
Well above its listed rivals, Nokia and ADTRAN, which earn much thinner margins on slower businesses; the gap is Ciena's own, not the group's.
Also checked and set aside: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (a substitute, not the same product).
Private or foreign rivals that cannot be priced: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., ZTE Corporation, Fujitsu (1Finity), Netcracker Technology.
Where we disagree with the market
An AI winner held back only by supply, with years of orders already booked.
Demand is real, but part of the backlog is early ordering in a shortage, and two buyers decide most of it.
Analysts are 76.2% positive, up from 58.8% in February, and their price targets have risen. Management calls next year's guide a floor.
Ciena's own annual report says part of the backlog growth comes from customers ordering early while parts are scarce. When supply catches up, orders could slow even if demand holds. We would be wrong if backlog keeps rising after lead times shorten, or if a third cloud buyer grows large.
What analysts say, and the evidence
The evidence under this - 5 claims
The 10-K says part of the backlog reflects constrained supply (C40); a shortage raises prices for every vendor, so price increases alone do not show customers cannot leave.
Only $2.5B of it is non-cancelable remaining performance obligation (C08), and the 10-K says part of the backlog growth reflects constrained supply rather than demand (C40).
What could go wrong, and how we would know
The risks
- Two buyers, 42% of sales. Two cloud companies bought 41.7% of Q3 sales, and contracts carry no minimum purchases.
- Orders placed early. Only $2.5B of the $8.5B backlog cannot be cancelled, and some of it is customers ordering ahead of a shortage.
- It has happened before. Sales fell 8.5% in fiscal 2024 when customers worked through equipment they had already bought.
- Strong rivals. Nokia sells to 9 of the 10 biggest cloud companies, and pluggables from Cisco and Marvell compete on shorter links.
- Shares paid to staff. Ciena spends heavily buying back stock, yet the share count still rose 0.7% this year.
The evidence under this - 6 claims
What we still do not know
- How much of the backlog customers would cancel or delay if parts stopped being scarce. Only the $2.5B that cannot be cancelled is disclosed.
- Ciena's real share of line systems. Dell'Oro names it a leader but sells the figures.
- Whether Google's own optics replace links Ciena sells today. Management did not say whether it supplies them.
- Which two cloud companies buy 41.7% of sales. The filings do not name them.
The evidence under this - 6 claims
Only $2.5B of it is non-cancelable remaining performance obligation (C08), and the 10-K says part of the backlog growth reflects constrained supply rather than demand (C40).
Dell'Oro names Ciena and Nokia together as the leading vendors of disaggregated line systems and publishes no share in its free summary (C14).
Management gave no evidence Ciena is in Google's 2.4-terabit programme, and the question was answered with a market view rather than a win.
What would change our view
- Neutral→AttractiveRoom for a partial miss, with the order book still growing
It needs all of:
- ○The shares fall until company value is 60 times operating profit, leaving room for the 2029 plan to partly miss.about ≈$310.18 today, 21% below the last close
- ○Backlog is $10B or more when the fiscal 2026 results are reported.checked at the next results, due in Dec 2026
- Neutral→UnattractiveThe order book turns, or the price outruns the plan
It needs any of:
- ○Ciena guides fiscal 2027 sales growth below 20%.checked at the next results, due in Dec 2026
- ○Backlog falls below $8.0B at the end of any quarter.checked at the next results, due in Dec 2026
- ○The shares rise until company value is 95 times operating profit, more than even the top of the 2029 plan supports.about ≈$491.11 today, 25% above the last close
We would also be wrong if
- Gross margin, before one-off items, falls below 43% for two quarters in a row.
- Sales to either of the two largest cloud buyers fall by a quarter or more from a year earlier.
What is coming
- December 2026 Hyper-Rail line system standardised by a customer: Whether the successor to RLS wins the next generation of line systems, the installed base the moat argument rests on.
Every dated event ahead
- December 2026 Hyper-Rail line system standardised by a customer: Whether the successor to RLS wins the next generation of line systems, the installed base the moat argument rests on.
- 10 December 2026 Q4 fiscal 2026 results and the fiscal 2027 guide: Backlog against $10B, the fiscal 2027 guide against 30% growth and a 25% adjusted operating margin, and how much backlog the 10-K still calls early ordering.
- March 2027 Q1 fiscal 2027 results: Whether growth tracks the 30% floor and whether the price rises management applied to backlog show up in gross margin.
- December 2027 CPX interconnect line begins earning revenue: Whether Ciena reaches inside the data centre, the larger market management describes, or stays a between-sites supplier.
Since we wrote this
- 5 OctThesis reviewThe long case now sits under the verdictAfter the five-name pilot, the owner asked for the long case on every thesis.
- 4 OctThesis reviewOwner's checklist: revenue streams, cost of growth, management, catalystsThe owner's checklist found the method silent on who runs the company, what growth costs, where the money comes from and what is dated ahead; this pass fills those four blocks from the proxy and filings.
- 3 OctThesis writtenNeutral, medium convictionWritten a month after the Q3 fiscal 2026 print and its 10.4% fall, and two weeks after the fiscal 2029 targets.
Also checked 3 times with nothing new to act on.
Sources 19
Sources - 19
Every claim above cites one of these, or states the reasoning that derived it. The quote is frozen at the date it was read: a link can rot, and an agent fetch returns a reading of a page rather than the page. Backs counts the whole claim ledger, so it can name a claim this page does not surface.
- S01primarycompany filing2025-12-12Item 1 products and competitors, revenue fiscal 2023 to 2025, segment split, customer concentration (17.9% and 10.5%, top five 49.7%), backlog $5.0B against $2.1B with the supply caveat, purchase commitments $2.1B, 140,854,735 shares at December 5, 2025backsC01C02C05C08C23C27C41C40C44C45C46
- S02primarycompany release2025-12-11Q4 fiscal 2025 GAAP operating income $10.5M, fiscal 2025 adjusted EPS $2.64, the first fiscal 2026 guide of $5.7B to $6.1B with 17% adjusted operating marginbacksC02C11C29C46
- S03primarycompany release2026-09-03Q3 revenue, segment table, GAAP and adjusted margins and EPS, the Q4 guidebacksC03C04C09C11C33
- S04primarycompany release2026-09-03backlog of $8.5B, cloud share of revenue, market-share claims citing outside measurersbacksC06C07C37
- S05primarycompany filing2026-09-03income statement, segment note, customers A and B (28.5% and 13.1%), RPO $2.5B, purchase commitments $3.3B, debt, convertible hedge and warrant terms, cash flow, 141,897,511 shares at August 28, 2026backsC01C03C05C08C23C25C26C27C28C29C31C46
- S06primarytranscript2026-09-03Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings call transcriptdata/cache/transcripts/CIEN-2026Q3.json (FMP earning-call-transcript, quarter label 2026Q3, call held 2026-09-03)backlog above $10B by year-end, the fiscal 2027 preliminary guide, price increases, supply through 2029, RLS share, Hyper-Rail, the hyperscaler takeaway, the tariff refund, and analysts' questions on pull-forward (Tal Liani) and Google's coherent-lite plans (Jeff Cocci)
Which after 18 months is still the only 1.6 terabit high performance modem on the market today.
backsC04C06C07C09C12C13C21C22C23C24C28C37C38 - S07secondarynews2026-09-16the fiscal 2029 targets and the new reporting segments; Business Wire refuses this client and no 8-K was filed
Revenue CAGR of approximately 30% from 2026 through 2029; Adjusted (non-GAAP) gross margin of approximately 50%
backsC10 - S08primaryindustry data2026-05-19Dell'Oro Group: optical transport equipment market forecast to grow 16 percent in 2026 Dell'Oro Groupmarket size and 2026 forecast, 1Q26 growth, DCI growth, the supply limit, top systems vendors and ZR/ZR+ leaders
Optical Transport equipment market is forecast to grow 16 percent in 2026, surpassing $18 billion in manufacturer revenue for the first time since the year 2000
backsC15C16 - S09primaryindustry data2026-08-20Dell'Oro Group: optical transport equipment market up 15% year on year in 2Q 2026 (via TelecomTV) Dell'Oro Group2Q26 growth, DCI up 45%, cloud providers 34% of the market, North America above 40%, line-system leaders, trailing top four
Disaggregated WDM optical line systems (OLSs) continued to be in high demand, growing 80 percent year-over-year. The leading vendors in this technology segment were Ciena and Nokia.
backsC14C17 - S10primarycompany filing2026-03-05Nokia Form 20-F for 2025 Nokia Oyjnumber two optical position, 9 of the top 10 hyperscalers, Infinera closed February 2025, Optical Networks EUR 3,019MbacksC18
- S11primarycompany filing2026-02-26ADTRAN Holdings Form 10-K for 2025 ADTRAN Holdings, Inc.Ciena named first among its optical competitorsbacksC19
- S12primarygovernment data2021-03-12FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Public Notice DA 21-309 (the Covered List) Federal Communications CommissionHuawei and ZTE equipment on the Covered List
Telecommunications equipment produced or provided by Huawei Technologies Company, including telecommunications or video surveillance services produced or provided by such entity or using such equipment.
backsC17 - S13primarycompany filing2026-07-24Alphabet Form 10-Q, quarter ended June 30, 2026 Alphabet Inc.purchases of property and equipment, six months 2026 against 2025backsC36
- S14secondaryvendor data2026-10-03Research pack (FMP market tier, FINRA short interest, daily closes)content/CIEN/research-pack.jsonprice, price-move decomposition, analyst split and history, target drift, earnings history, short interest, cohort multiplesbacksC11C31C32C33
- S15primarycompany filing2026-09-2989 open-market sales, the 10b5-1 flag on each, three discretionary director salesbacksC35
- S16tertiarynews2026-06-04the June guidance raise to about $6.3B and the stated reason for the fall
some investors are wondering whether the artificial intelligence trade is losing steam
backsC11C34 - S17tertiarynews2026-09-03the stated reason for the September fall; the body is behind a sign-in
Ciena posts record Q3 revenue on AI demand but falls 10% as Q4 guidance only matches consensus
backsC34 - S18primarycompany filing2026-09-04Cisco Systems Form 10-K, fiscal year ended July 25, 2026 Cisco Systems, Inc.Acacia's coherent optics inside Cisco's networking portfoliobacksC20
- S19primarycompany filing2026-02-12Ciena Corporation proxy statement (DEF 14A), filed February 12, 2026, for the March 26, 2026 meetingbeneficial ownership as of January 27, 2026, the fiscal 2025 bonus and equity design and payouts, the CFO successionbacksC42C43C44