Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) is scheduled to release its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the market open on Monday, March 7, 2011. Analysts, on average, expect the company to post a loss of 16 cents per share on revenue of $421.43 million. In the year ago quarter, the company posted a loss of 12 cents per share on revenue of $175.88 million.
Ciena Corporation provides communications networking equipment, software, and services that support the transport, switching, aggregation, and management of voice, video, and data traffic.
In the preceding fourth quarter, the Linthicum, Maryland-based company's net loss was $80.32 million or $0.86 per share, compared to prior year's loss of $26.6 million or $0.29 per share.. On an adjusted basis, the net loss was 9 cents a share in the second quarter. Adjusted net loss, which excludes special items, also widened to $16.98 million or $0.18 per share from a loss of $10.76 million or $0.12 per share in the previous year. Total revenue for the three months ended October 31 surged to $417.61 million from $176.27 million last year. Analysts, on average, expected the company to post a loss of $0.15 per share on revenue of $405.31 million.
At its last earnings call in December, Ciena said that it expects fiscal first quarter 2011 revenue to be in the range of $410 million to $430 million. Adjusted gross margin is projected to be in the low 40% range, consistent with the company’s near-term expectation.
Recently, the company announced the expansion of its Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery (CESD) portfolio with the addition of new switching products designed to address LTE backhaul networking requirements.
The communications equipment industry has shown significant growth this year. As corporations become more mobile, connection solutions allowing employees to connect directly with the corporate server are growing in appeal. Businesses are looking for faster options and equipment makers that offer these options have the opportunity to bolster their top lines. With such growth potential throughout the industry, companies are fighting harder than ever to secure their respective niches. At the moment there is massive demand for mobile internet -- and demand is only likely to grow going forward - and telecom customers are typically looking for smooth transitions to 3G or 4G networks.
However, Ciena's near-term results are expected to remain under pressure due to heightened competition, increased expenses, volatile European market, a slowdown in carrier spending and continued losses.
Full Disclosure: None.
