New York, Feb 19, 2026, 11:54 a.m. ET — Regular session
- Lumentum shares rose nearly 5% in late-morning trading after hitting an intraday high near $625.
- A Mizuho price-target hike this week kept focus on the company’s AI-linked data-center optics business.
- Investors are watching late-February and March management appearances for fresh demand and backlog signals.
Shares of Lumentum Holdings Inc (LITE.O) rose 4.9% to $623.32 by 11:54 a.m. ET on Thursday, after trading as high as $624.56.
The stock has turned into a high-beta readout on spending tied to faster data-center links, as cloud firms add capacity for AI workloads. Moves have been abrupt, and traders have leaned on analyst notes and filings for the next clue.
Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh this week raised his price target on Lumentum to $645 from $525 and kept a buy rating, according to Futu News. A price target is an analyst’s estimate of where a stock could trade over the next year. (Futu News)
Lumentum’s own numbers set the backdrop. Earlier this month, the company reported quarterly revenue of $665.5 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.67, and forecast current-quarter revenue of $780 million to $830 million with non-GAAP EPS of $2.15 to $2.35. It also pointed to optical circuit switches (OCS) — hardware that helps reroute traffic in optical networks — and co-packaged optics (CPO), which integrates optics closer to chips to cut power and boost speed. (Lumentum Investor Relations)
“Revenue hit the high end of our guidance range,” CEO Michael Hurlston said in the earnings release, alongside comments pointing to OCS and CPO as near-term growth areas. (Q4 Capital)
After that report, Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland wrote that “dramatically better guidance” was the key, arguing the outlook reset investors’ expectations for the model. (Investors)
The latest run has not come without noise. A Form 4 filing — the SEC disclosure insiders use to report stock trades — showed executive vice president Vincent Retort sold 3,441 shares on Feb. 17 for about $1.88 million in transactions flagged as part of a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a pre-set trading arrangement. (SEC)
A separate Form 4 showed President, Global Business Units Wupen Yuen sold 3,157 shares at $538 apiece, also under a 10b5-1 plan, for proceeds of about $1.70 million. (SEC)
Other names tied to optical networking were modestly higher. Coherent rose about 0.9%, Ciena gained about 0.7%, and Broadcom added roughly 0.8% in late-morning trade.
But the risk is simple: the stock is pricing in follow-through. Any sign that big customers push out deployments, or that orders soften after the early-year surge, can bite fast — and insider sales, even planned ones, can feed jitters when a chart is stretched.
The next near-term test will be management’s scheduled investor stops. Lumentum said it plans to participate in the Susquehanna technology conference on Feb. 26 and present at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference on March 2. (Lumentum Investor Relations)
Investors are also looking toward an investor briefing at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) in Los Angeles on March 17, where the company has said it will host a session that could bring updated commentary on OCS and CPO demand and delivery timing. (Lumentum Investor Relations)
