On Thursday, CIENA (NYSE:CIEN) maintained its Outperform rating and a $60.00 stock price target, according to Evercore ISI. The firm's analysis followed CIENA's reported quarterly results, which showed revenues of $911 million and earnings per share (EPS) of $0.27. These figures surpassed the street's expectations of $896 million in revenue and $0.15 EPS.
Despite a year-over-year sales decline of approximately 20%, influenced by reductions across telecom, cable, and webscale verticals, there were signs of stabilizing demand. Notably, telecom revenues saw a quarter-over-quarter increase in the April quarter.
CIENA has revised its fiscal year 2025 revenue guidance to the lower end of the previous range, now expecting around $4.0 billion, a 9% decrease from prior forecasts. Still, the company still aims to meet its gross margin targets in the mid-40s percentage range and operating expense (OPEX) goals of approximately $340-345 million. The guidance suggests a modest increase in sales for the July quarter and a more significant, above-seasonal rise of over 20% for the October quarter.
The company expressed a more optimistic outlook, anticipating a strong finish to the fiscal year if the recovery in orders continues as projected. Nonetheless, the updated guidance for fiscal year 2024 includes caution, especially if the anticipated telecom recovery does not unfold as expected.
CIENA is also experiencing positive early responses to its WaveLogic 6, which is set to be generally available in the second half of the year, alongside improving demand trends in both telecom and cloud verticals.
Evercore ISI's stance is that CIENA is poised to benefit from advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). The firm anticipates that by fiscal year 2025, CIENA could experience a combination of steady telecom demand, an uplift in cable, and acceleration in cloud services propelled by AI. This outlook underpins the firm's decision to stick with the Outperform rating and a $60 price target for CIENA shares.
In other recent news, Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Corporation announced a significant earnings beat for its fiscal second quarter, with an adjusted EPS of $0.27, surpassing analyst expectations of $0.14, and revenue of $910.8 million, beating the consensus estimate of $895.8 million.
Despite a challenging environment, the company's performance highlighted its resilience, though the reported revenue represented a decline from the $1.13 billion reported in the same quarter last year. Rosenblatt Securities adjusted its stance on Ciena, downgrading the stock from Buy to Neutral due to a challenging market outlook, while JPMorgan revised its price target for Ciena shares to $60, maintaining an Overweight rating.
Andrew C. Petrik, Vice President, Principal Accounting Officer, and Controller of Ciena, recently disclosed his plans to retire. The process of finding and transitioning to a new Vice President and Principal Accounting Officer is expected to commence soon.
Needham, a financial services firm, maintained its Buy rating on shares of Ciena with a stock price target of $65.00, expressing confidence in Ciena's ability to remain a leader in the networking sector, and highlighting the company's strategy to expand into adjacent markets as a key factor for potential growth. These are among the recent developments from Ciena Corporation.
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