JDSU Pleads the Fifth on Capex

Unlike some other companies, JDSU (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU) is not predicting a slow second half to 2012.

Neither are executives forecasting that things will be good. Executives wouldn't commit either way on Tuesday's earnings call, instead sticking to the plain-fact statements that AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) haven't changed their capital expenditure forecasts for the year.

"If the capex numbers hold up, there's pent-up demand," said CFO David Vellequette -- who will be leaving the company in September for another job, as executives announced on the call.

AT&T, for instance, has said all year that it expects to spend about $20 billion in 2012. The carrier's capex for the first two quarters has totaled $8.83 billion.

The capex question comes up because Oclaro Inc. (Nasdaq: OCLR) recently said optical components demand isn't likely to improve for the rest of the year. (See Oclaro Predicts Dim 2012 for Optical.)

JDSU sells test equipment, so it's in a different position from Oclaro's. It can sell test equipment into some recent optical buildouts, as CEO Tom Waechter pointed out. Then again, the September quarter is traditionally show for test equipment, so any benefit probably wouldn't show up until the end of the year.

JDSU does expect revenues for Communications and Commercial Optical Products, the division that includes optical components, to rise 3 percent to 7 percent during the current quarter compared with the previous quarter. That would amount to between $191 million and $198 million.

For the moment, JDSU seems to be doing relatively well, as its earnings beat analysts' expectations as tallied by Thomson Reuters .

For its fourth quarter, which ended June 30, JDSU reported revenue of $439.3 million and a net loss of $24.3 million, or $0.10 per share. For the same quarter a year ago, JDSU had reported revenue of $409.2 million and a net loss of $17.4 million, or $0.08 per share.

The revenues bettered analysts' forecast of $422.6 million, and non-GAAP net income of $0.15 per share beat the consensus estimate of $0.12 per share.

JDSU shares were up $0.38 (3.6%) at $11.06 in after-hours trading Tuesday.

— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading