Ciena Corporation

How has the stock done?

Change in closing price from the first day shown, or with Price the closing price itself. Prices: Yahoo Finance, to Nov 12, 2026. Dashed lines: the days the company released earnings (its SEC 8-K filings); EPS estimates: Yahoo Finance. The stock's move after a release runs from the last close before its day to the close the day after (or five days after), so a release before the open counts like one after the close.

Is the business growing?

In the fiscal year to Oct 2025, Networking Platforms was 77% and Global Services was 13% of revenue; Networking Platforms fell from 80% in the fiscal year to Oct 2023.

Quarters: Ciena Corporation's SEC filings, named by the month they end. Fiscal years: Ciena Corporation's annual reports to the SEC.

How it makes money

Of every $100 in revenue, $2.6 ends up as net income. Net margin fell from 4.2% to 2.6% over the past 3 years.

Each margin is that line of the income statement divided by revenue. Fiscal year: Ciena Corporation's annual reports to the SEC; quarters: SEC filings.

Customers and suppliers

In its latest annual report Ciena sells to AT&T; one customer it does not name accounts for 17.9% of its revenue; it names no suppliers.

Suppliers

Celestica CLS

 

CIENCiena

Customers

Unnamed customer 18%

AT&T T 10%

Their customers

AST SpaceMobile ASTSfrom AT&T

EchoStar SATSfrom AT&T

Show 2

Changes since the previous annual report (10-K filed Dec 20, 2024)

SSyndioNo longer named (was a supplier)

Largest unnamed customerCustomer, share of revenue13.3% → 17.9%

AT&T TCustomer, share of revenue11.8% → 10.5%

Only the companies Ciena names in its 10-K filed Dec 12, 2025 (SEC). The supply chain joins the latest annual reports of the companies on it and the 8-Ks they filed since: a link shows when either side's report names the other, so it grows as more reports are read. Hover a name for the filing's own words. Customers it does not name are listed as the filing describes them.

Is it expensive?

P/E of 65.6x, above the peer median of 34.6x, so it needs earnings to keep growing to hold up.

Priced 90% above the peer median of 34.6x (excludes 1 unprofitable peer).

At 65.6× trailing earnings CIEN is inside the middle of its five-year range; the five-year median is 48.1×.

Closing price over diluted earnings per share of the last four reported quarters, as known on each day (a quarter counts 35 days after it ends). From SEC filings; earnings per share adjusted for splits.

What analysts expect

The average analyst price target is $513, 74% above the current price; 81% of 21 analysts rate it a buy; earnings beat estimates in all of the last 4 quarters.

Buy or Strong Buy: 17 analysts (81%). Sell or Strong Sell: 0.

Over the past year the average of the analysts' latest price targets went from $152.33 to $509.07 (+234%), while CIEN went from $194.21 to $293.99 (+51%). In the past three months targets were raised 4 times and cut 10 times. 3 upgrades and 1 downgrade over the year; the latest: Evercore ISI Group moved it to Outperform from In-Line on Sep 21, 2026.

The day after each of these reports the stock moved −1.5% (Oct 2025, beat); −14.4% (Jan 2026, beat); −21.3% (Apr 2026, beat); −9.4% (Jul 2026, beat).

For the quarter ending Oct 2026 (Ciena reports on Dec 10, 2026), analysts expect revenue of $1.8B, up 30% on a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending Oct 2027, they expect adjusted earnings of $10.33 a share, 44% more than the year before's estimate of $7.17, and revenue of $8.4B, up 31% on the year before's estimate.

Targets, ratings and earnings estimates: Yahoo Finance. Rating and target changes: Yahoo Finance's list of upgrades and downgrades. The average target on each day is the average of every listed firm's latest target set in the 180 days before it, so it counts fewer analysts than the average target above, and the band is the middle half of those targets (a quarter of the firms are above it, a quarter below); a target set before a stock split is divided by the split. Expected figures: the average of the analysts' estimates (Yahoo Finance). Their EPS is adjusted, as analysts estimate it, so it is set against the adjusted EPS Yahoo reports for the same quarters, not the GAAP EPS of the growth and valuation sections; revenue against the SEC filings. No change is given against a quarter whose reported EPS was more than 50% off its own estimate (often a one-off gain or charge), nor against a year that counts one. Each estimate is pinned to its fiscal period by the report date or the period's end, and one that cannot be is left out.

Where the cash goes

Generated $810M in free cash flow over the year, of which $420M went back to shareholders (dividends plus buybacks), leaving $390M in the company.

Ciena had 146M diluted shares in the quarter ended Jul 2026, 1.0% more than a year earlier, and 1.0% fewer each year on average since Apr 2020. It spent $422M on buybacks over the last four quarters. Over the last four quarters its earnings per share rose 357.1% and its net income rose 364.5%: more shares took about 7 points off.

Free cash flow: operating cash flow minus capital spending on property, plant and equipment, from SEC filings, for the last 4 quarters and by quarter. Shares: each quarter's diluted weighted average as filed with the SEC, since the stock's listing and its latest split.

Financial health

Current ratio 2.7, no pressure to repay short-term debt; debt-to-equity 0.6, debt is moderate.

Latest fiscal year balance sheet. Source: Yahoo Finance.

Who holds it

In the filings of 1 member of Congress and 8 funds whose copy leaves CIEN out (on the exchange, not in the app yet): UNICOM Systems, Bridgewater Associates, Rob Bresnahan, Norges Bank, Swiss National Bank, Temasek Holdings (Private) and 3 more.

What did the funds Hunch tracks do?

Of the 83 funds whose 13F filings Hunch reads, 12 held CIEN at the end of their latest quarter (for most, Q3 2026). Over that quarter 6 added shares, 5 cut, 4 sold all and 1 held the same. The largest of them is Norges Bank, 1.70M shares worth $835M at Jun 30, 2026, 109.8% more than at Dec 31, 2025.

From the 13F filings of the 83 funds Hunch tracks, not of every institution: each fund's shares of CIEN at its latest quarter end against the quarter before, as filed (long positions only, options left out), the quarter before put on the latest quarter's share count across a split. A fund files 45 days after its quarter ends, so some have a newer quarter than others. Value is at the quarter end. Norges Bank filed its 13F for Q1 2026 confidentially, with no holdings made public, so its row compares Q2 2026 with Q4 2025.

Are insiders buying or selling?

Officers and directors sold $99.5M of CIEN on the open market in the 12 months to Nov 11, 2026; none bought. 96% of the sales were made under 10b5-1 plans, set up in advance. The largest was Gary B Smith (President & CEO; director), who sold $45.6M in 23 sales.

From the Form 4s filed with the SEC about Ciena Corporation (125 in the 12 months): purchases (code P) and sales (code S) on the open market by its officers and directors, at the price each filing gives (often an average of the day's trades). A sale is a 10b5-1 sale when its filing says it was made under such a plan, set up in advance. Not counted: 193 other transactions (grants, shares withheld for tax and gifts).