Optical networking heavyweight Ciena posted strong third-quarter 2019 results that handily beat expectations. While CEO Gary Smith lauded Ciena's performance during the earnings call Thursday morning, he also talked up the company's single-wavelength 800-gigabit networking hardware, which he claimed would be the first to reach the market later this year.

"We booked our first orders for our WaveLogic 5 powered 6500 platform with a large subsea customer in the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

He also talked up Ciena's Blue Planet Intelligent Automation platform, which was acquired with the purchase of Cyan in 2015 and spun off into an independent software division in February.

"Our Blue Planet Portfolio also continues to evolve and mature, drawing increased customer engagement," he said, according to a transcript.

Smith said Ciena's automation portfolio has continued to gain traction globally and is on track to reach its 2019 revenue target of between $50 million and $60 million.

Ciena saw its third-quarter revenues rise 17% year over year to $960 million, which is an increase of more than 10% since last quarter. Strong performance in the North American Europe, Middle Eastern and African [EMEA] markets drove this growth, said Smith.

"North America contributed significantly in the quarter including from service providers and our web-scale providers," he said, according to a transcript. "EMEA also had strong performance in Q3, up nearly 50% sequentially, largely on the strength of our web-scale business."

Smith said that for the first time ever the company's top customer was a web-scale company.

But while revenues were up in North America and EMEA, Ciena's year-over-year revenues in the Asia-Pacific market fell 21% during the quarter.

Solid demand and favorable industry dynamics, however, proved more than enough to keep the company profitable. The company reporting a 16.2% adjusted operating margin and adjusted earnings per share of $0.71 during the quarter.

Ciena expects to maintain this momentum through the end of 2019 and into 2020.

"Looking ahead, in fiscal fourth-quarter 2019, we aim to deliver revenue in a range of $945 to $975 million," said CFO Jim Moylan, according to a transcript. "Adjusted gross margin in the range of 42% to 43% and operating expenses in the fourth quarter will be approximately $275 million."

Moylan said the company anticipates to grow revenues at a rate double that of current expectations.

According to a note from Jefferies, Ciena's 2020 guidance of approximately 6% revenue growth is consistent with the company's traditionally conservative guidance in the past.