Infinera's stock price surged 11% in the wake of the optical networking vendor's second-quarter 2019 earnings report with CEO Thomas Fallon projecting the company would return to profitability in Q4.

"Over the past several months, we've made tremendous progress toward building the new Infinera, Fallon said, according to a transcript.

Fallon said Infinera's successful acquisition of rival Coriant last fall is already showing promise as the company continues to execute on its integration plans.

"As we near the end of our integration period, solid execution continues to support our expectations of returning to non-GAAP profitability and cash flow in the course of the fourth quarter just over one year from our closure of the acquisition," he said.

During today's earnings call with investors, Fallon lauded the company's strong bookings in the second quarter, which rose more than 15% compared to Q1. These were reportedly driven by large Tier 1 service providers and growth in subsea bookings.

He also talked up Infinera's upcoming 800 Gb/s product line — expected to launch sometime next year — and the Groove disaggregated network platform, which saw strong growth with bookings growing 75% quarter on quarter and 80% year over year.

According to Fallon, disaggregated networking has the potential to become a multibillion-dollar industry in the next few years.

"Our Groove platform is meaningfully contributing to this trend," he said.

Despite facing ongoing challenges associated with the acquisition of Coriant, Infinera saw strong growth in the second quarter, with total non-GAAP revenues up 32% year over year to $307 million.

According to CFO Brad Feller, revenues were driven in part by customers acquired from Coriant.

During the second quarter, Infinera saw net operating expenses grow by a similar margin. Non-GAAP operating expenses grew about 30% from the same quarter in 2018 to $131 million.

However, Fallon notes that Infinera is on track to realize a $100 million-plus reduction in non-GAAP operating expenditures thanks in large part to the decision to move manufacturing from Berlin to Fabrinet in Thailand.

Looking forward to the second half of 2019, Fallon the company expects to continue to grow its backlog of bookings throughout the third quarter. He said the company is on track to meat its revenue target of $1.3 billion and return to positive cash flow in Q4.

"The benefits of the Coriant acquisition are materializing and the finalization of the integration is now in sight for the new Infinera," Fallon said.

However, Feller warned investors that as Infinera continues to bring Coriant into the fold, the company will continue to see higher levels of spending through the third quarter before ramping down in the Q4.

The Q2 earnings call marked the last for Feller as chief financial office. Later this month Nancy Erba, formerly of Immersion Corporation, will take over as CFO.

“Nancy is a seasoned finance executive with a proven track record of managing financial strategy and operations in high-growth and billion-dollar scale public companies,” said Fallon. “As we strengthen our financial operations and continue to execute our long-term strategy to drive profitable and sustainable growth, Nancy will be a key asset to our leadership team. It is a pleasure to welcome her to Infinera.”

Feller, who was appointed CFO in 2014, announced he would be stepping down in September to focus on ongoing health challenges.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Infinera,” said Erba in a statement.