CHANDLER, Ariz., April 30, 2026, 07:02 (MST)
- Viavi Solutions jumped roughly 20% in early U.S. trading after its fiscal third-quarter results topped expectations.
- The company is still seeing steady demand from AI data centers, plus its aerospace and defense clients, according to its latest forecast.
- Key risk here: GAAP profit dropped year-on-year, and cash flow for the quarter turned negative.
Viavi Solutions Inc. surged roughly 20% out of the gate Thursday, following a quarterly beat and a robust outlook for the upcoming fiscal fourth quarter that outpaced analyst forecasts. Shares last changed hands at $54.65, not far from the session peak of $60.69, market data showed.
This shift is significant, with Viavi now positioned more squarely in the path of AI data center expansion—where testing for advanced chips, optical connections, and high-speed ethernet is a must before anything gets rolled out broadly. According to Viavi, data center clients, along with buyers in aerospace and defense, have been driving demand. Those two pockets are helping to backfill softness in other telecom segments.
Viavi’s net revenue jumped 42.8% to $406.8 million in the fiscal third quarter ended March 28. Adjusted earnings landed at 27 cents per share—beating both the Zacks analyst consensus of 24 cents and the $393.5 million revenue expectation.
The company put out a fiscal Q4 revenue forecast in the $427 million to $437 million range, with adjusted EPS expected between 29 and 31 cents. That outlook kept attention trained on demand signals, not just the single-quarter outperformance.
Viavi president and CEO Oleg Khaykin highlighted stronger-than-expected third-quarter results in the company’s statement, with gains coming from both data center and aerospace and defense markets. Speaking on the earnings call, Khaykin pointed to ongoing strength in data center demand, projecting that momentum will carry through calendar 2026 as customers seek out optical transport, silicon photonics, and high-speed ethernet test gear.
Viavi’s biggest division, network and service enablement, delivered $321.5 million in revenue—a jump of 54.4% compared to the prior year. Sales in the Optical Security and Performance Products unit, which covers light-management tech for 3D sensing and anti-counterfeiting among other uses, climbed 11.4% to $85.3 million.
Spirent played a notable role here. Viavi reported $54.2 million in revenue from the Spirent lines it picked up, just for the quarter. On the earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Ilan Daskal pegged the annual run rate for that segment at roughly $200 million, but flagged that some orders had slipped from the previous quarter into March.
With the Spirent assets, Viavi moves into more direct competition with Keysight Technologies. Keysight, the bigger test-equipment player, bought Spirent and then agreed to divest certain high-speed ethernet, network security, and radio-frequency channel emulation businesses to Viavi to satisfy U.S. antitrust regulators. According to the Justice Department, before the asset sale, Keysight and Spirent both controlled significant shares of those test equipment segments.
Analyst calls shifted, too. Needham & Co bumped its Viavi price target to $68 from $53, sticking with a buy, MarketBeat reported. B. Riley, ahead of the earnings release, had already raised its own target—$53 up from $26—pointing to strong demand for data center gear and the impact of the Spirent deal.
Still, the quarter had its issues. GAAP net income dropped sharply to $6.4 million, down from $19.5 million the previous year. Viavi burned through $26.3 million in operating cash—contingent consideration played a part there. Management flagged the results as preliminary, pending the official quarterly filing.
Downside risk looks clear: a slowdown in AI data center demand, persistent weakness in service-provider outlays, or Spirent’s impact easing back after earlier front-loaded orders could all shrink Viavi’s margin for error after the stock’s big move. The company ended the quarter with $1.08 billion in total net debt, set against $508 million combined in cash, short-term investments, and restricted cash.
