Is the business good?
How good a business is CIEN?
Ciena earns 16% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
16%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 7.0 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 12%
Operating margin · Communication Equipment median 5.3% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.24×
Cash conversion · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- +1.0%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 14% |
| FY2021 | 14% |
| FY2022 | 6.1% |
| FY2023 | 8.2% |
| FY2024 | 4.2% |
| FY2025 | 4.1% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 44%
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 12%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 11%
- Free cash flow margin
- 14%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 15%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $6.02B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $814M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $654M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 16%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Communication Equipment
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