Ciena Stock Tumbles as Incentive Compensation Drives Profit Below Estimates

Ciena (CIEN) shares tumbled nearly 14% Thursday after the networking systems company’s fiscal second-quarter profit fell short of analysts’ estimates.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.42 on revenue that jumped 24% year-over-year to $1.13 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected $0.52 and $1.09 billion, respectively.

In Thursday’s earnings call, CFO Jim Moylan said the company’s adjusted operating expense of $369 million was “higher than expected, driven entirely by higher incentive compensation, associated with very strong order performance in the quarter and our overall financial performance in the first half of the year,” per a transcript provided by AlphaSense.

Moylan said the company expects tariffs to create a headwind of about $10 million per quarter going forward, most of which Ciena said it expects to be able to mitigate.

The CFO said that Ciena projects $1.13 billion to $1.21 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue, above the $1.1 billion consensus. However, the company’s adjusted operating expense is forecast at $370 million to $375 million, well above the $356.0 million that analysts expect, which Moylan said is again due to the higher incentive compensation.

Ciena shares entered Thursday down 1% since the start of the year.