Roanoke, Virginia, June 8, 2026, 15:02 EDT
- Optical Cable shares surged roughly 64% on Monday afternoon, with the stock rally coming as the company turned a quarterly profit.
- Second-quarter sales climbed 26.6% to $22.2 million. Growth came from higher enterprise, data-center and severe-duty demand.
- Backlog climbed to $13.3 million. Management pointed out fiber shortages, lead time issues and project timing as variables.
Optical Cable Corporation jumped 64% on Monday after the company posted a second-quarter profit and higher sales. The Roanoke, Virginia cabling maker climbed to $20.22, up $7.92, by 2:46 p.m. Eastern on Nasdaq. Shares hit $22.92 earlier in the session. Trading volume reached 17.8 million shares.
The action stood out for a small cap. OCC reported 8.83 million common shares outstanding as of June 2, according to a filing. Monday’s trading volume hit about double that number.
OCC shares are moving after its results landed in a market focused on tech and data-center names again. The Nasdaq gained Monday, with tech and chip stocks driving the rebound, according to Reuters.
OCC reported net sales climbed 26.6% to $22.2 million in the second quarter, up from $17.5 million last year. The company posted net income of $1.1 million, or 12 cents per share. That compares with a net loss of $698,000, or 9 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.
Demand got better in enterprise, data-center and severe-duty markets, the company said. Gross margin climbed to 34.2% from 30.4%. The increase was driven by higher volumes, spreading fixed factory costs over more sales.
Backlog was in focus for investors. OCC reported sales order backlog and forward load grew to $13.3 million by quarter-end. That’s up from $10.4 million on Jan. 31 and $7.3 million on Oct. 31.
OCC Chairman and CEO Neil Wilkin said sales climbed, citing “largely driven by strength” in the enterprise, data-center, and severe-duty markets. Wilkin added that the company is sticking to “disciplined execution” and a focus on shareholder value. PR Newswire
OCC executive vice president and CFO Tracy Smith told the earnings call the backlog and forward load “continues to be strong” as of the end of May. She pointed to higher fiber and copper prices as a margin headwind but said OCC usually looks to counter raw-material inflation with selling price moves. Investing.com
Questions about competition came up. Sergio Masaros, analyst at Eden Discovery, called it a “very, very strong quarter” but wanted to know if Corning-related data-center contracts might mean more work for OCC. Wilkin said those deals were “not necessarily impacting OCC.” He added the company wasn’t seeing limits to growth in data-center markets. Investing.com
OCC doesn’t have the broad hyperscale footprint like bigger names in optics and connectivity, including Corning. Wilkin said OCC’s gear targets multi-tenant and enterprise data centers. Growth at Tier 1 hyperscale sites can provide some lift for these overlapping segments.
But after the jump, there’s less margin for error. OCC’s 10-Q flagged that first-half results can’t forecast how the year ends, pointing to macro risk, supply and labor pressures, raw-material pricing, rivals, normal season swings and when big projects or orders fall.
Wilkin said the sector is now facing optical-fiber shortages and longer lead times tied to strong demand from data centers and elsewhere. OCC is handling those problems, he said, but a pause in orders, a changed product mix, or higher input costs could challenge the margin story that pushed shares up on Monday.
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