Ciena's Earnings Surprise: What's Driving Their Growth in Telecom?

Ciena Corp CIEN reported a fourth-quarter FY23 revenue growth of 16% year-on-year to $1.129 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $1.095 billion.

The American telecommunications networking equipment and software services supplier reported an adjusted EPS of $0.75, beating the consensus of $0.69.

Segments: Total Networking Platforms revenue grew by 16.5% Y/Y to $876.9 million, and Total Global Services increased by 19.9% Y/Y to $150.5 million.

Margins: The adjusted gross margin declined by 150 bps to 43.7%. Adjusted operating margin grew by 80 bps to 13.8%.

Two customers represented 10%-plus of revenue for Q4, combining for a total of 29.7% of revenue.

Ciena held $1.25 billion in cash and equivalents and generated $195.5 million in operating cash flow.

"Today we reported strong fiscal fourth-quarter results, driven by positive demand dynamics, particularly with cloud provider customers," CEO Gary Smith said.

The Q1 consensus revenue and EPS are $1.05 billion and $0.56, respectively.

Price Action: CIEN shares were trading lower by 2.40% at $44.66 premarket on the last check Thursday.