Weak Demand Forecast Slows Ciena Down

December 13th, 2012 by · 1 Comment

The quarterly results from cien offer up a regular off-month peak into the market, and today’s was a bit wintery.  The company’s fiscal fourth quarter results were in the right ballpark as compared with guidance, but the company’s forecast for their fiscal Q1 were on the light side in an echo of what we saw three months ago:

$ in millionsFQ4/12FQ1/12FQ2/12FQ3/12FQ4/12FQ1/12
(guidance)
-Packet-Optical Transport296.2266.3318.0 298.5289.4
-Packet-Optical Switching41.243.431.037.8 20.5
-Carrier Ethernet Solutions28.821.930.631.3 47.9
-Software and Services89.385.198.0106.5 107.7
Revenue455.5416.7477.6  474.1465.5  435-460
Adj. OPEX180.8175.4172.9 175.6191.8 high 180s
Adj. GM%43.2%41.9%39.6% 39.6%42.7% low 40%s
Adj. EPS0.03-0.17 0.04 -0.04-0.07

Packet-optical took a bit of a hit, compensated in part by strong Carrier Ethernet sales.  Adjusted opex was on the high side, but gross margins were better than anticipated.

As for guidance, the market was looking for $458, a number that Ciena’s projected range of $435-460M just barely included.  It’s generally not a big quarter for Ciena regardless though, and the range seems reasonable to me.  But with 100G starting to hit its stride and Ciena’s 100G gear winning plenty of deals, one might wonder when it will start to help the numbers.

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Categories: Financials · Telecom Equipment

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