Ciena (CIEN) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $11.50B
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Average Volume (3M): 2.50M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 113.4
• Beta (1Y): 1.68
• Revenue Growth: 2.86%
• EPS Growth: -29.92%
• Country: US
• Employees: 8,795
• Sector: Technology
• Sector Strength: 88
• Industry: Communication Equipment
• EPS (TTM): 0.42
• Shares Outstanding: 141,367,220
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 2,416,746
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 2,501,901
• PEG Ratio: 3.10
• Price to Book (P/B): 3.83
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.00
• P/FCF Ratio: 36.10
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 0.97
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 0.68
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 6.25
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 7.67
• 1Y Price Target: $85.33
• Price Target Upside: 6.49% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 14

• Rating: 64 Neutral
• Price Target: $91.00 ▲(13.57%Upside)

Ciena's strong earnings call and positive technical analysis significantly boost its stock score. While financial performance is stable, profitability margins need improvement. The high P/E ratio suggests valuation concerns, but the company's strategic focus on cloud and AI infrastructure drives positive sentiment.

Positive Factors

Market Performance

Ciena has secured a significant market share in ZR pluggables within a year, indicating strong market performance.

Revenue Growth

Elevated Cloud activities are driving growth, with revenue growth of 23.6% surpassing expectations and contributing to a positive growth outlook.

Technology Leadership

Ciena's position as a technology leader in the optical systems market is expected to benefit from strong investments from Cloud providers in data center interconnect.

Negative Factors

Margin Pressure

Margins are under pressure due to the company's late entry into the pluggable market, though improvements are anticipated as volumes grow.

Profitability Challenges

Top-line growth is not accompanied by profitability, leading to a more cautious outlook.

Valuation Concerns

Valuation remains expensive, with little room for multiple expansion.

Ciena Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Ciena Corporation (CIEN) is a United States-based networking systems, services, and software company that operates within the telecommunications sector. It specializes in providing solutions that enable the delivery and management of high-performance network infrastructures. Ciena's core products and services include optical networking and routing platforms, network automation software, and professional services designed to optimize network performance and efficiency for service providers, enterprises, and other organizations globally.

How the Company Makes Money

Ciena generates revenue primarily through the sale of its networking equipment and software solutions to telecommunications service providers, large enterprises, and web-scale companies. The company's key revenue streams include the sale of optical and packet networking hardware, network automation and control software, and associated professional services. Ciena's partnerships with major telecommunications companies and cloud providers also contribute significantly to its earnings by expanding its market reach and enhancing the scalability of its solutions. Additionally, the company's focus on innovation and the development of next-generation networking technologies, such as 5G and data center interconnect, play a critical role in driving its revenue growth.

Ciena Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Ciena exhibits a stable financial position with strengths in revenue growth and cash flow generation, although profitability margins indicate potential areas for improvement. The balance sheet reflects solid equity support and manageable debt levels. Overall, the company is positioned well in the Communication Equipment industry, but should focus on enhancing operational efficiencies to improve profit margins.

Income Statement

Ciena demonstrated solid revenue growth with a 6.22% increase in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) revenue compared to the previous annual period. Gross profit margin remained healthy at 41.94% TTM, although net profit margin is modest at 2.46%. The EBIT margin is relatively low at 4.68% TTM, indicating room for operational efficiency improvements.

Balance Sheet

The company's balance sheet shows a moderate debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, reflecting manageable leverage. Return on equity stands at 3.77% TTM, suggesting modest returns to shareholders. Equity ratio is strong at 49.05%, indicating a solid equity position relative to total assets.

Cash Flow

Free cash flow decreased by 22.71% in the TTM period, which may raise concerns about cash generation. However, the operating cash flow to net income ratio is favorable at 4.30, indicating strong cash flow from operations relative to net income. The free cash flow to net income ratio is also solid at 2.79.

Breakdown	TTM	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021	Dec 2020
Income Statement
Total Revenue	4.26B	4.01B	4.39B	3.63B	3.62B	3.53B
Gross Profit	1.79B	1.72B	1.88B	1.56B	1.72B	1.65B
EBITDA	382.67M	350.35M	527.03M	397.43M	618.48M	646.17M
Net Income	104.80M	83.96M	254.83M	152.90M	500.20M	361.29M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	5.66B	5.64B	5.60B	5.07B	4.87B	4.18B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	1.25B	1.25B	1.12B	1.15B	1.60B	1.24B
Total Debt	1.59B	1.63B	1.66B	1.13B	737.48M	763.74M
Total Liabilities	2.88B	2.83B	2.75B	2.36B	1.85B	1.67B
Stockholders Equity	2.78B	2.82B	2.85B	2.71B	3.02B	2.51B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	291.89M	377.89M	62.13M	-258.57M	462.10M	410.99M
Operating Cash Flow	450.65M	514.53M	168.33M	-167.76M	541.65M	493.65M
Investing Cash Flow	-215.22M	-306.48M	-383.45M	-101.25M	-90.72M	-220.24M
Financing Cash Flow	-378.47M	-285.06M	229.38M	-133.06M	-116.83M	-87.22M

Ciena Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 80.13
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Positive
• 200DMA: Positive
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For CIEN, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 80.13 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 76.60, above the 50-day MA of 76.54, and above the 200-day MA of 73.52, indicating a bullish trend. The MACD of 1.40 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 56.89 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 66.07 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for CIEN.

Ciena Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
CSCO	72 Outperform	$274.71B	28.43	21.36%	2.36%	0.47%	-17.77%
CSCO	72 Outperform	$274.71B	28.43	21.36%	2.36%	0.47%	-17.77%
NOK	65 Neutral	$27.90B	34.60	5.70%	3.98%	-9.96%	-6.83%
NOK	65 Neutral	$27.90B	34.60	5.70%	3.98%	-9.96%	-6.83%
CIEN	64 Neutral	$11.50B	113.36	3.71%	―	2.86%	-29.92%
ERIC	58 Neutral	$28.98B	182.30	1.67%	0.31%	-2.08%	―
ERIC	58 Neutral	$28.98B	182.30	1.67%	0.31%	-2.08%	―
LITE	57 Neutral	$6.44B	―	-42.79%	―	3.58%	-22.74%
LITE	57 Neutral	$6.44B	―	-42.79%	―	3.58%	-22.74%
Sector *	50 Neutral	AU$1.52B	1.82	-28.25%	3.28%	16.21%	-7.40%

Ciena Corporate Events

Ciena Appoints New CFO Amid Leadership Transition

Ciena Corporation announced the appointment of Marc D. Graff as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective August 1, 2025. With nearly 30 years of global finance experience, Graff brings extensive expertise in data center-related technologies. His leadership is expected to drive Ciena’s financial strategy and operations, supporting growth in high-speed connectivity demand fueled by AI and cloud computing. This appointment follows the planned retirement of the current CFO, James E. Moylan, Jr., on August 28, 2025.

The most recent analyst rating on (CIEN) stock is a Buy with a $68.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Ciena stock, see the CIEN Stock Forecast page.