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Ciena CIEN

equity

Price History

$5.37$290.14$574.91$859.69
1997-02 · DCA start$137.38

Time underwater

How far below its previous all-time high the price sat, each month. 0% means a new high.

-99.4%-66.3%-33.1%0.0%
1997-022026-08 · -49.7%

Worst drawdown: −99%, peaking Sep 2000 and bottoming Feb 2009 — still unrecovered after 311 months.

DCA Backtest

Invested
$35,500
Value today
$539,281
Return
+1419.1%
Months invested
355

Scenarios

Inflation — the same contributions merely keeping pace with CPI would be $53,769 today, so the real (inflation-adjusted) return is +903.0%.

Lump sum instead — $35,500 all at once in Feb 1997: $111,649 (+214.5%) — DCA came out ahead.

Worst timing — same monthly amount started at the all-time high (Sep 2000): $525,378 on $31,200 invested (+1583.9%).

⚠ Price returns only — dividends are not included. This understates the true return of dividend-paying shares, and any comparison against crypto (which pays no dividends) is biased against equities by roughly the dividend yield, compounded.

If this saved you a spreadsheet — buy me a coffee.

Every start month at once

Each cell is the return-to-date of £/$/€100-a-month DCA started that month. Click a cell to load it in the backtest above. The ringed cell is the all-time-high start — the worst timing scenario.

JFMAMJJASOND
1997
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2000
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2002
2003
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Legend:−50%−20%0%+50%+200%+1000%worst timing (ATH)Selected 1997-02: +1419.1%

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation is an American optical networking systems and software company based in Hanover, Maryland. The company reported revenues of $4.8 billion and more than 9,000 employees, as of November 2025. Gary Smith has been president and chief executive officer (CEO) since 2003. (Wikipedia)

It's a listed company categorised under information technology and communications equipment, with a market cap of about $61.2B.

It rates High Risk at 2.9/5, meaning several rated factors score badly, so this carries materially more risk than a typical holding.

What pushes the score up: earnings quality (5.0/5) and market / volatility (4.7/5).

Scoring well: sector / regulatory at 1.0/5.

Not yet researched: concentration, governance. These are excluded from the score rather than guessed, so the real risk may be higher than what’s shown.

Ratings summarise sourced facts against fixed rules — not investment advice, and no substitute for your own diligence.

Risk Profile

High Risk(2.9/5)80% rated

How these ratings work

Market / Volatility4.7/5 · weight 20%
  • Annualised volatility (3yr)4/552.2
  • Max drawdown from ATH5/599.4
  • Beta vs S&P 5005/51.9
Liquidity1.0/5 · weight 15%
  • Avg daily $ volume1/51.3bn
  • Float % of shares outstandingnot yet researched
Leverage / Financial2.0/5 · weight 20%
  • Debt / equity2/50.53
  • Interest coverage (EBIT / interest)not yet researched
Earnings Quality5.0/5 · weight 15%
  • 3yr EPS volatility5/579.6
Concentrationunrated · weight 10%
  • Largest customer, % of revenuenot yet researched
  • Geographic revenue concentrationnot yet researched
Governanceunrated · weight 10%
  • Board independence %not yet researched
  • Share structurenot yet researched
  • Litigation / audit historynot yet researched
Sector / Regulatory1.0/5 · weight 10%
  • Sector regulatory exposure1/5low

Linked Assets

Same sector, or return-correlated — worth knowing what else might move if this one does.