Finisar Wows With Guidance

Finisar Corp. (NASDAQ: FNSR) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. The company said it had $0.25 in earnings per share (EPS) on $309.2 million in revenue. That compares to consensus estimates of $0.23 in EPS on revenue of $311.1 million. In the same period of the previous year, it posted EPS of $0.25 and $321.14 million in revenue.

In this quarter, sales of products for telecom applications increased by $2.6 million, or 2.9%, compared to the preceding quarter. This was primarily driven by growth in wavelength selective switches.

Sales of products for datacom applications decreased by $14.5 million, or 6.2%, compared to the preceding quarter.

In terms of the outlook, the company indicated that for fiscal fourth quarter it currently expects EPS to be in the range of $0.22 to $0.28, revenues in the range of $307 to $327 million, gross margin of roughly 30% and an operating margin of in the range of 8.2% to 9.2%. Consensus estimates call for $0.21 in EPS on $314.66 million in revenue for the fourth quarter.
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On the books, cash, equivalents and short-term investments totaled $531.1 million at the end of the quarter, compared to $520.8 million in the same period from last year.

Jerry Rawls, CEO of Finisar, commented:

Revenues for our third fiscal quarter were $309.2 million, approximately in line with the midpoint of our prior guidance range for the quarter of $300 to $320 million. Better than expected gross margins, due to favorable product mix, as well as lower than expected operating and other expenses, resulted in earnings per fully diluted share at the upper end of our prior guidance range.

Shares of Finisar were trading up 18.4% at $16.79 on Friday, with a consensus analyst price target of $15.93 and a 52-week trading range of $10.66 to $23.38.