Ciena sees benefits in diversifying customer base as revenues rise to $621.6M

Ciena's move to diversify its customer base beyond large Tier 1 service providers like AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) continued to pay off in its fiscal second quarter of 2015 as revenues rose year-over-year to $621.6 million.

Ciena's net income for the fiscal second quarter 2015 was $20.7 million, or 17 cents per diluted common share, which compares to a GAAP net loss of $10.2 million, or 10 cents per diluted common share, for the fiscal second quarter 2014.

Analysts had forecast that Ciena would report earnings of 13 cents per share on revenue of $559.3 million.

Catharine Trebnick, an analyst with Dougherty & Company LLC, told Reuters that the company has expanded its presence in a number of other vertical market segments, including Web 2.0, finance, education, healthcare and energy.

"They are less concentrated around two top Tier 1 carriers, so their top 10 customers now generate 60 percent of the total revenue as opposed to 65 percent a year ago," Trebnick said.

The company reported revenue varied by segment.

Leading the revenue stack were Converged Packet Optical and Software and Services, which were $432.9 million and $118.9 million, up from $357 and $107 million in the same period a year ago.

However, the company did report that Packet Networking and Optical Transport, which includes parts of its legacy business, saw revenues decline to $53 and $16.5 million.

Looking forward, Ciena has forecast that third-quarter revenue will come in the range of $585 million to $615 million, surpassing analysts, who were polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, to be $583.3 million.

Shares of Ciena were listed at $24.91, up 47 cents, or 1.92 percent, in early Thursday afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more:
- see the earnings release
- Reuters has this article

Special Report: Wireline telecom earnings in the first quarter of 2015

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