That realization, though not really uttered by executives, seemed to be implied by investors as they reacted to the company's numbers and its lowered revenue expectations.
The vendor reported a fiscal third quarter net loss of $29.8 million, or $0.30 a share, on revenues of $474.1 million. "We are experiencing the effects of ongoing macroeconomic challenges and slower than expected rollouts of new design wins," CEO Gary Smith said. He said some other stuff, too, but investors were too busy clacking their keyboards and selling shares to hear him.
Ciena expects its fiscal fourth quarter to yield revenues in the range of $455 million to $480 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting revenues of $499 million in the fourth quarter. Clack, clack, clack, clack.
After noting weak packet optical transport gear sales for the quarter, Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold, in a note to clients, wrote: "Also, pricing remains intense and our checks have suggested that aggressive pricing has crept into the 100Gbit/s market along with other product categories."
Indeed, even the highest end of the optical networking space is slipping down market. Next thing you know we'll have long-haul DWDM systems adorned with fuzzy dice and those damned Evergreen air fresheners.
And then there's Ciena's balance sheet, which CLACK, CLACK, CLACK, CLACK ... Oh, never mind.
Here are some previous Ciena financial announcements and stories. If you see the word "profit" it's probably a typo:
- Ciena Marks $28M Q2 Loss
- Ciena Posts Slimmer Q1 Loss
- Is Ciena's Miss a Cause for Panic?
- Ciena Reports Full-Year Loss
I think investors are more concerned about their ugly balance sheet. The cost of servicing their debt will be larger than any profit they can squeeze out. Either way CIEN and ALU are both hosed. They are both like a Las Vegas home...underwater.