Ciena Posts Blowout Q3, Yet Analysts Slashed Price Targets: Why? - Ciena (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena shares rose in early trading Friday after the telecom-equipment company posted strong fiscal third-quarter results, but analysts cut their price targets. The downgrades were attributed to valuation pressure and compressed sector multiples rather than a weakening growth outlook. Needham’s Ryan Koontz maintained a Buy rating but trimmed the target from $600 to $520. Rosenblatt’s Mike Genovese also kept a Buy, reducing the target from $720 to $525. Ciena reported revenue up 37% year over year to $1.671 billion, beating consensus of $1.637 billion, and non-GAAP EPS of $2.11 versus $1.73 expected, alongside non-GAAP gross margin of 46.4%. Backlog climbed to $8.5 billion, with expectations to exceed $10 billion by year-end.