JDSU - Sector: Technology - Industry: Communications Equipment

[setravis]

Starts 2011 with a thunderous roar...

JDSU Rallies Like Mad...monster vol on earnings beat.
Posted non-GAAP EPS of $0.29, handily beating analyst expectations.
On the beat, JDSU is higher by 22.6%.
Momentum and earnings growth.
With government support for upgrades, JDSU will continue run.
Wait for slight pull-back before entry to fill some gaps,however...it will continue to move upward.

Day's Range: 21.03 - 22.88
52wk Range: 7.66 - 22.88
Volume: 39,758,569
Avg Vol (3m): 5,334,580
Market Cap: 5.07B

[setravis]

How Long Can JDSU Continue to Crush It?
JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU) starts 2011 with a thunderous roar.

The maker of fiber-optic networking equipment more than doubled its second-quarter non-GAAP earnings to $0.29 per share on revenues of $477 million. Both results were way better than the average analyst estimate, and sales also beat JDSU's own guidance senseless.

The stock is up by more than 25% overnight on this report and has gained 173% over the last year.

[setravis]

JDSU's Huge December Quarter Triggers Optical Stock Frenzy...

During the original Internet bubble, some of the most egregious stock market valuations came in shares of optical networking equipment providers. Thanks to the emergence of a large number of competitive local exchange carriers and various other new telcos, demand for optical networking gear soared – until it became apparent that the telecom industry's construction frenzy had created a gigantic bandwidth glut. The CLEC's gradually disappeared, and the optical stocks subsequently fizzled, and demand dried up.

No stock had a more spectacular rise in that period than JDSU (JDSU), which at one point had a market cap of $125 billion, before staging one of the greatest stock collapses of all time. But JDSU has been through a mammoth restructuring process, and lately has seen a resurgence in demand – the bubble era excess capacity has been soaked up, and then some. The latest evidence comes in the form of JDSU's earnings report for the fiscal second quarter ended January 1.

For the quarter, JDSU reported $477.2 million in revenue on a non-GAAP basis, or $473.5 million on a GAAP basis, ahead of the Street consensus at $437.7 million. Non-GAAP profits of 29 cents a share beat the Street by a dime. Gross margin expanded to 48.8%, from 47.4% in the previous quarter, and 44.6% a year ago.

For the March quarter, the company sees revenue of $440 million to $460 million, nicely ahead of the old Street consensus at $420.75 million.

"In fiscal Q2 JDSU reported record revenues, gross margin and operating margin, which exceeded our operating model target," CEO Tom Waechter said in a statement. "This is an exciting time for JDSU. Our market drivers are strong, our innovation engine and pipeline for new products is robust, and we continue to increase our operating leverage."

Update: As a number of Street analysts point out Friday morning, JDSU has changed its target margins structure:  the company is now targeting gross margins of at least 49% and operating margins of 14%-17%; the old model was gross margins of at least 46% and operating margins of 11%-14%. The revised model is no doubt adding to investor enthusiasm for the shares.

On the news, JDSU shares have spiked in after-hours trading. Meanwhile, Opnext (OPXT), another optical equipment company, also reported better-than-expected results this afternoon. The result: the entire sector is headed higher, as carrier spending on network expansion projects begins to payoff for their equipment suppliers.

•JDSU is up $3.27, or 18.2%, to $21.20.
•Finisar (FNSR) is up $1.90, or 5.5%, to $36.33.
•Olcaro (OCLR) is up 67 cents, or 4.7%, to $15.
•Oplink (OPLK) is up 63 cents, or 2.4%, to $26.80.
•Opnext (OPXT) is up 27 cents, or 13.6%, to $2.26.

[setravis]

JDSU hits 2nd 52-week high in 6 days...
JDS Uniphase has been on a one-way rampage to the upside, and traders continue to look for more gains.

Last week the company hit an earlier 52-week high and jumped more than 25 percent after reporting it moved from a second-quarter loss to a profit.

[setravis]

JDS-Who?  The return of hot tech stocks...



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- JDS Uniphase, a company that lost a then-record $56 billion in 2001, is now one of the hottest tech stocks of 2011. As '80s sitcom "star" Yakov Smirnoff would say, "What a country!"

Yup, JDS Uniphase is back with a vengeance. The maker of optical networking equipment reported boffo earnings last week, and shares are up an astonishing 36% since then. So far this year, JDS Uniphase (JDSU) is up more than 65%, making it the top performing stock in the S&P 500.

In case you forgot, JDS Uniphase rode the tech boom of the late 1990s and was a favorite of momentum investors.

I wouldn't be surprised if some poor schlub tattooed the JDSU ticker symbol on his arm to profess his love for the stock. The Jim Cramer joke among traders back in the proverbial day was that JDSU stood for Just Don't Sell Us.

But the company's fortunes took a nasty turn following the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Demand dried up, resulting in the aforementioned massive loss. The stock continued to languish for years and fell to a low of just above $2 a share during those dark economic times of November 2008.

The fact that JDS Uniphase has made such a triumphant return from its nadir --the stock's now at about $24 -- is clear evidence that some investors are willing to once again embrace riskier, momentum plays.

And it's not the only tech stock to have made a stunning comeback as of late.

Fellow networking equipment company Ciena (CIEN) is up 30% this year. Shares trade at around $27, up from a February 2009 low of barely above $5. Another hot optical company, Finisar (FNSR), has surged from a low of just $2 a share in late 2008 to about $40 now.

To the cloud! Wait, the what?
Graphics chip maker Nvidia (NVDA), which was below $6.50 a share in late 2008, is now trading at about $24. The stock's up 56% this year alone.

And then there's satellite radio company Sirius XM (SIRI). It's trading for only about $1.76 a share. So unlike the others I've mentioned, it is still a penny stock.

But it's done its best Virginia Slims impersonation. It's come a long way, baby. Sirius XM is up from a low of 5 cents a share in early 2009, when many investors feared bankruptcy was imminent.

There's an obvious question that now begs to be asked. Is this all reasonable?

Yes and no.

Many of these stocks may have run up too far too fast and are due for a pullback. Investors rightfully should be worried about drinking the tech Kool-Aid again so soon after the last bubble.

But as trite as it may sound, this recent tech rally does seem a lot different than 10 years ago.

JDS Uniphase, for example, is a solidly profitable company that's growing rapidly. Analysts expect earnings for this fiscal year to more than double, while sales are forecast to rise 32%.

It makes sense. Thanks to the popularity of smartphones and data-hogging social networking and video sites, there should be more demand for networking equipment as well as companies catering to the so-called "cloud" trend.

"The entire networking sector had been in purgatory for close to a decade. But the Internet has evolved," said Sunil Reddy, a portfolio manager focusing on tech stocks for Apex Capital Management in Dayton, Ohio. "E-commerce has exploded. There's so much more video and data. This growth is going to go on for a while."

More tech news from CNNMoney on Tumblr!
More importantly though, shares of JDS Uniphase are no longer valued at an absurdly high, bubbilicous price. The stock is trading at 26 times fiscal 2011 earnings estimates. Not cheap, but reasonable for a growth stock.

The same can be said for Finisar and Nvidia, which both trade at about 24 times earnings estimates for their current fiscal years.

"Valuations got so overstretched back in 2000 that it was obviously troublesome. Many companies were trading over 100 times earnings estimates," said Doug MacKay, CEO of Broadleaf Partners, an investment firm in Hudson, Ohio.

MacKay, who worked as a tech fund manager for Oak Associates during the glory days for tech in the late 1990s, said he's learned the hard way that companies with super-high valuations are unlikely to sustain them for long.

He's been keeping an eye on JDS Uniphase and Ciena, two stocks he owned at Oak, but has not pulled the trigger on them for his current firm. But MacKay said tech is still one of his favorite sectors.

"If you want to invest in growth, tech is still an area where you have to play," MacKay said.

He just prefers to stick with tech stocks at more attractive prices. He owns Qualcomm (QCOM, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), all of which trade at price-to-earnings ratios in the mid-to-high teens.

Reddy, whose firm owns shares of Finisar, agreed that investors have to keep an eye on valuations. He said his biggest worry is that some stocks may be ahead of themselves.

Just don't call it another bubble right now.

"Like with any cyclical sector, people get too enamored with companies and when that happens, it's a cause for concern. But I don't think we're there yet," he said.

[setravis]

March 4, 2011, 2:45 PM ET.JDS Uniphase (and Friends) Off to The Races Again.

Juniper Networks, a big networking company, gave good news to the flurry of smaller players who benefit from its investment decisions.

Juniper is introducing a new switch that requires optical components made by companies such as Finisar, Oclaro and – yes – JDS Uniphase. Juniper is crawling a scant 0.4% higher, but Finisar is up 2.8% and Oclaro is rising 3.9%.

Just Don't Sell Us? It is soaring about 9%, a boggling move in a market that is otherwise broadly weak, including most tech stocks.

JDSU has had an intriguing run since the start of the year, to say the least. Its shares are up 89% and volume has soared. Short interest has also risen, jumping to 10 million shares as of Feb. 15, almost double the level on Jan. 31. But with average daily trading volume rising four-fold to 25 million shares, the short-interest ratio is essentially less than 1.

JDSU is threatening its high for the year of 28.16, reached on Feb. 11. And it seems undeterred by a Citi downgrade on Feb. 18 that contributed to a short-term decline that took the shares for 23.56 on Feb. 23.

With such a hot stock, it's a puzzle that insiders are such healthy sellers. According to Thomson Reuters, CEO Thomas Waechter, CFO David Vellequette and top execs Roy Bie and Alan Lowe have all been sellers. Most of these sales are part of automatic programs, but certainly bears watching.
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Day's Range: 25.05 - 27.52
52wk Range: 9.05 - 29.12
Volume: 24,213,584
Avg Vol (3m): 10,719,400
Market Cap: 6.14B
P/E (ttm): 489.82
EPS (ttm): 0.06
Div & Yield: N/A (N/A)

Technicals
Last Price Quote is:
12.00%above 13-day EMA
34.47%above 50-day EMA
RS Rating: 97 

[setravis]

JDS Uniphase Shares Get Boost From Agilent's Rosy Outlook
Mar 4, 2011 4:19 PM CT

JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) shares jumped 8.9 percent after Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) gave a bullish outlook for the test-and-measurement market, JDS's biggest source of revenue.

The shares rose $2.23 to $27.37 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the biggest one-day gain since Feb. 11. The shares have climbed 89 percent this year.

The Milpitas, California-based company makes machinery that tests whether network equipment is working properly. Agilent, the largest test-and-measurement company, yesterday told analysts that market growth is holding up.

"All the evidence suggests that growth that we say in our first quarter is continuing," said Agilent Chief Executive Officer Bill Sullivan. The Santa Clara, California-based company reported sales growth of 25 percent in the three months ended Jan. 31.

Agilent shares also rose, gaining $3.93, or 9.2 percent, to $46.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.



Day's Range: 25.05 - 27.52
52wk Range: 9.05 - 29.12
Volume: 28,364,333
Avg Vol (3m): 11,130,400
Market Cap: 6.14B
P/E (ttm): 488.75
EPS (ttm): 0.06
Div & Yield: N/A (N/A)

Technicals
Last Price Quote is:
11.64%above 13-day EMA
34.03%above 50-day EMA
RS Rating: 97