Ciena Corp. continues to see surging demand, and that’s likely to send the soaring stock higher still, Bank of America said. The Wall Street bank reiterated its buy rating on the networking system and software company in a report Thursday, while hiking its price target to $550 from $355, a catchup move after Ciena closed at $475.76 on Wednesday. The new target implies nearly 16% upside. Ciena, a double in 2026 after nearly tripling last year, is “at the heart of an optical super-cycle,” Bank of America analyst Tal Liani wrote. With a backlog of $7 billion, and hyperscaler capital spending exploding, Liani expects demand for network connectivity to grow further this year. “Demand is driven by a few catalysts: sheer bandwidth growth that requires investments in both non-AI and AI data centers (DCs), [and] massive DC buildout in 2026-2028 with opportunities for scale-across interconnect,” he wrote. CIEN YTD mountain Ciena has more than doubled in 2026 Although Ciena sells for more than 70 times forward earnings, Liani said the valuation is fair given the acceleration in future growth. The stock is one of the most attractive providers of networking equipment for artificial intelligence, and Ciena continues to grab increased market share, the analyst wrote. “We expect market share of 800G ZR pluggables to increase from about 30% in 2025 to at least 50% in 2026, with the market concurrently expected to grow 10x, representing solid growth opportunity and driving up Ciena’s Cloud market share in optical networking beyond current 50% levels,” Liani said.
