Ciena (CIEN)
Forward P/E is 34.25x against a peer median of 26.38x, a ratio of 1.30x, with trailing P/E 79.63x — a clear premium, but PEG is only 0.46, the growth-adjusted multiple is cheap, and latest-quarter revenue grew 37.0% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), well above the peer cluster. That delivered growth pays for the premium, so the label is fairly priced rather than overvalued. Delivered demand check: the Communications equipment group's median growth was 27.3% — demand rising.
What would change this label: Move to OVERVALUED if revenue growth falls below 20% year over year, or PEG rises above 1.0, while the forward P/E stays above 34x. Move to UNDERVALUED if the forward P/E falls below about 29x (1.10x the peer median) with growth still at or above 35% and PEG still below 0.6.
Ciena's shares cost more than its rivals', but its sales grew 37% in the latest quarter — faster than most of them — and its expected profit growth is strong for the price. That makes the price roughly fair, not cheap. The risk is that network spending is cyclical and can slow suddenly.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Ciena returned +499.23% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Ciena: -49.5% (2021-12-29 to 2022-10-11). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 34.25x against a peer median of 26.38x, a ratio of 1.30x, with trailing P/E 79.63x — a clear premium, but PEG is only 0.46, the growth-adjusted multiple is cheap, and latest-quarter revenue grew 37.0% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), well above the peer cluster. That delivered growth pays for the premium, so the label is fairly priced rather than overvalued. Delivered demand check: the Communications equipment group's median growth was 27.3% — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 34.2× against a peer median of 26.4×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Communications equipment group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 27.3% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +37.0% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ciena (CIEN) | $356.35 | 34.2× | 79.6× |
| FFIV | $398.49 | 21.9× | 31.8× |
| LITE | $878.00 | 39.7× | — |
| MSI | $478.38 | 26.4× | 37.7× |
| ANET | $188.16 | 40.3× | 59.5× |
| CSCO | $110.73 | 21.5× | 33.2× |
| Peer median | 26.4× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Aug 2026 2026-08-01 | $1.7B | 45.4% | $266M | 1.83 | $116M |
| Q/E May 2026 2026-05-02 | $1.6B | 44.0% | $218M | 1.49 | $219M |
| Q/E Jan 2026 2026-01-31 | $1.4B | 43.8% | $150M | 1.03 | $154M |
| Q/E Nov 2025 2025-11-01 | $1.4B | 42.7% | $19M | — | $326M |
| Q/E Aug 2025 2025-08-02 | $1.2B | 41.3% | $50M | 0.35 | $135M |
| Q/E May 2025 2025-05-03 | $1.1B | 40.2% | $9M | 0.06 | $128M |
| Q/E Feb 2025 2025-02-01 | $1.1B | 44.0% | $45M | 0.31 | $77M |
| Q/E Nov 2024 2024-11-02 | $1.1B | 40.9% | $37M | — | $266M |
| Q/E Jul 2024 2024-07-27 | $942M | 42.9% | $14M | 0.10 | $-179M |
| Q/E Apr 2024 2024-04-27 | $911M | 42.7% | $-17M | -0.12 | $42M |
| Q/E Jan 2024 2024-01-27 | $1.0B | 45.0% | $50M | 0.34 | $249M |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-28 | $1.1B | 43.0% | $91M | — | $173M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | CIENA CORP |
| Chief executive | Gary Smith (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciena) |
| Sector | Technology — Communications Equipment — sells optical networking equipment and related software for telecom and data-centre networks |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $356.35 |
| Market value (market cap) | $49.8B — share price times shares outstanding of 141,808,525 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $6.0B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $654M |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $814M |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Aug 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +499.23% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -49.5% (2021-12-29 to 2022-10-11) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000936395.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000936395.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/CIEN/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.