Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) investors are up 12% in the past week, but earnings have declined over the last three years

Simply Wall St

Sat, February 14, 2026 at 8:00 PM GMT+9 3 min read

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CIEN

+3.74%

Generally speaking, investors are inspired to be stock pickers by the potential to find the big winners. But when you hold the right stock for the right time period, the rewards can be truly huge. For example, the Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) share price is up a whopping 536% in the last three years, a handsome return for long term holders. On top of that, the share price is up 59% in about a quarter. Anyone who held for that rewarding ride would probably be keen to talk about it.

The past week has proven to be lucrative for Ciena investors, so let’s see if fundamentals drove the company’s three-year performance.

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To quote Buffett, ‘Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace…’ One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

During the three years of share price growth, Ciena actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) drop 4.7% per year.

Companies are not always focussed on EPS growth in the short term, and looking at how the share price has reacted, we don’t think EPS is the most important metric for Ciena at the moment. Therefore, it makes sense to look into other metrics.

It may well be that Ciena revenue growth rate of 5.0% over three years has convinced shareholders to believe in a brighter future. If the company is being managed for the long term good, today’s shareholders might be right to hold on.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

NYSE:CIEN Earnings and Revenue Growth February 14th 2026

Ciena is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. If you are thinking of buying or selling Ciena stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst consensus estimates for future profits.

A Different Perspective

It’s good to see that Ciena has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 238% in the last twelve months. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 41%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. It’s always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Ciena better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we’ve identified ** 2 warning signs for Ciena** that you should be aware of.

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For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch** with us directly.**_ Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com._

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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