- Optical component vendors NeoPhotonics (NPTN +12.6%), Oclaro (OCLR +9.4%), Viavi (VIAV +6.9%), Finisar (FNSR +3.8%), Alliance Fiber (AFOP +4%), and Fabrinet (FN +3.1%) are rallying after optical transport hardware vendor Infinera (INFN +14.6%) beat Q3 estimates and issued strong Q4 guidance. Infinera rival Ciena (CIEN +3.4%) hit yesterday by a bearish Off Wall Street report, is also doing well.
- For Oclaro, the shoe is now on the other foot: Infinera rallied last week after Oclaro pre-announced strong calendar Q3 sales.
- On the earnings call (transcript), CEO Tom Fallon stated Infinera saw "a substantive increase" in sales of its Cloud Xpress data center interconnect platform. Cloud Xpress customers now stand at 14 (up from 12 as of July), and growing machine-to-machine traffic within data centers is expected to boost demand for 100G interfaces. Infinera's core long-haul system sales were also healthy.
- Fallon did admit Infinera is seeing "some conflicting signals" regarding market demand. "On one hand, we are seeing some pockets of slightly softening demand. On the other, we're seeing positive indications in the industry, such as lead-times extending for optical components and continued capacity expansion from cloud providers." The optical component remarks might be contributing to today's rally in component makers.
- Needham's Alex Henderson, who upgraded Infinera earlier this month, is reiterating a Buy rating today. "Infinera reported a strong quarter and offered a strong guide in its first quarter with Transmode partially in the base and fully in the CY4Q guidance. Negative commentary on the Street on INFN and CIEN regarding industry price pressure has set-up a solid entry point and we expect investors will take advantage of this recent weakness."