- Finisar (FNSR -18.4%) has plunged to its lowest levels since 2012 after missing FQ1 estimates, providing soft FQ2 guidance, and announcing chairman Jerry Rawls is replacing Eitan Gertel as CEO.
- Optical component/module peers Alliance Fiber (AFOP -4.6%), Lumentum (LITE -2.3%), and Oclaro (OCLR -6%) are also off, as are equipment vendors Infinera (INFN -3.8%), Ciena (CIEN -2.8%), Adtran (ADTN -2.3%), and Calix (CALX -2.5%). The Nasdaq is nearly flat.
- During Finisar's earnings call (transcript), Rawls noted his company continues to "see a high level of competition," and is aiming to cut operating expenses to ~20% of revenue from FQ1's 21.8%. CFO Kurt Adzema mentioned wireless and legacy 100G datacom component sales were soft in FQ1, and that Finisar is now seeing "some lumpiness" for 40G data center sales.
- Adzema insisted the competition (much of it around low-end/10G products) is business as usual. "The lower end products always [face] competition from non-tier 1 companies and in some period of time, it just takes whether it’s a one year or a three year or whatever the period, tier 2 competitors always catch up." Rawls promised 25G/100G Ethernet data center upgrade cycles would drive growth next year.
- MKM and B. Riley have downgraded Finisar to Neutral, and several other firms have cut targets. MKM's Michael Genovese cites datacom competition/price pressure, and states he's "becoming less convinced that there is an easy path to industry consolidation that will help alleviate ... significant Optical component industry challenges,"
- At the same time, Genovese defends Ciena, Infinera, and Lumentum (formerly JDS Uniphase's component unit). "Ciena and Infinera actually slightly benefit from more [component] competition and lower prices since they are customers ... we believe the negative revisions in Finisar's outlook are much more on the Datacom side than on the Telecom side ... Finisar is an incumbent that derives 75% of overall revenues from Datacom, while Lumentum is a relatively new challenger with only 20% of revenues from Datacom ... we are much more confident in the demand and pricing environments for 100G Telecom (Metro and [long-haul]) components than we are for Datacom, and Lumentum has significantly more exposure to 100G Telecom than Finisar."