Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of optical networking equipment maker Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN) are doing their best Superman impression, leaping over tall buildings and short-sellers grasps, after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results. Shares were up as much as 13% today.

So what: For the quarter, Ciena reported a 14% rise in sales to $477.6 million with an adjusted profit of $0.04 which reversed a year-ago loss of $0.66. This compared favorably with Wall Street's expectation for a loss of $0.03 on just $447 million in revenue. As Ciena CEO Gary Smith has said before, he believes the company's growth in the second half should easily outpace its first-half performance, which could be a green light for investors to buy.

Now what: Following lackluster earnings reports from Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU) in the networking and fiber optics space, no one had been expecting Ciena to report strong earnings given the worries in Europe and the tight spending by U.S. telecommunication companies. But Ciena proved those naysayers wrong. I remain very optimistic regarding prospects in the fiber optic sector and Ciena is just one of the many companies that looks poised to benefit.

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