New York, June 22, 2026, 15:04 EDT
- Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) climbed 6.1% to $901.89, reversing from an intraday low of $829.35 as the Nasdaq Composite fell.
- Shares moved after U.S. markets closed for Juneteenth, tracking a bigger rally in Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR), which also counts Nvidia as a backer in optical components.
- Investors may be missing the bullish story in the revenue bridge tied to optical circuit switches and co-packaged optics. Lumentum pointed out it has a backlog topping $400 million and sees “underappreciated” upside in attach rates.
Lumentum Holdings Inc. moved higher Monday afternoon with shares rallying 6.1% to $901.89. The optical-networking company showed strength while most of the Nasdaq lagged, as AI infrastructure stocks drew buyers coming off the holiday break. NASDAQ:LITE had dipped to $829.35 earlier before rebounding.
NASDAQ:LITE gets more attention after landing in the Nasdaq-100, Russell 1000, Russell 3000, and S&P 500, according to Fidelity. It’s not just a photonics play now. The stock shows up in passive funds and big growth indexes, which can fuel bigger moves in price when buyers or sellers hit the name.
Weakness in megacap tech sent the Nasdaq Composite down 1.05% at 2:15 p.m. ET. The rest of the market wasn’t offering support. Bill Northey, senior investment director at US Bank, told Reuters the AI data-center buildout and its component suppliers still hold the best fundamentals.
Power and bandwidth are less talked about, but key drivers here, not only broad “AI demand.” Lumentum said at the Rome AI conference, which ended Saturday, that its optical circuit switches, transmit-retimed optical modules, and CPO lasers help lower power use, reduce cooling, and cut down on data-center water. Optical circuit switches move data with light. Co-packaged optics brings optical links closer to chips and switches so there’s less power loss and lower latency. Business Wire
That gives traders a clearer angle. In investor materials from March, Lumentum said optical circuit switches are on track for a revenue run rate topping $1 billion by 2027. The company also cited an order backlog of over $400 million slated for delivery in the back half of 2026. The same presentation called out scale-out switches and CPO attach rates as an “underappreciated catalyst”; attach rate is how often customers build the tech into their systems.
Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston keeps pitching the margin story to investors. The company hit record fiscal Q3 revenue at $808.4 million in May and projected fiscal Q4 revenue in a range of $960 million to $1.01 billion. Hurlston called out the “less-heralded” scale-across portfolio for boosting margins and said OCS and CPO should add to earnings. Business Wire
Coherent’s recent 12.4% gain added to the move. Nvidia had said in March it would put $2 billion into Lumentum and another $2 billion in Coherent, both tied to long-term purchase deals and future access to advanced laser and optical networking parts. Coherent is Nvidia’s other big optical-technology partner.
Monday’s action in Lumentum doesn’t look like just a one-off stock pop. It’s reading more like a play on the supply chain. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in Lumentum’s release that AI is fueling the “largest computing infrastructure buildout in history.” Lumentum CEO Hurlston said the agreement boosts new fab capacity. NVIDIA Newsroom
Lumentum trades at nearly 163 times earnings, which keeps shares under their 52-week high of $1,085.68 and limits how much the company can slip on CPO adoption, ramp-ups or customer demand. The latest Nvidia-Lumentum note flagged risks from capacity, suppliers, trade restrictions and export rules that could hit results.
The next key test won’t just be about Lumentum. Investors are watching Micron Technology’s numbers and the personal consumption expenditures data coming Thursday, which is the Fed’s main inflation gauge. If the reports give a clear signal on AI spending and rates, that could continue to boost optical stocks. But a hot inflation number or more megacap tech selling would slam high-multiple component names again.
