Come Tuesday night, we're due for a full-year and fourth-quarter report from optical communications expert Finisar (NASDAQ:FNSR). This company makes networking stalwarts like Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU), IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD) tick, so let's see what makes Finisar tick to begin with.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or waffle? Six of the eight Wall Street analysts following this company recommend that you buy the stock. The other two are holding. In our Motley Fool CAPS investor community, it's a three-star stock based on more than 230 user ratings.
  • Revenue. The Wall Street consensus points to $108 million of revenue, up from $102.4 million last year.
  • Earnings. The average forecast calls for $0.02 of profits per share, down from $0.03 a year ago.

What management does:
See anything you like? Yeah, me too. The improving gross margin led to good things on the bottom line, and Finisar should have broken through to trailing-12-month profitability last fall.

But there's something unsavory going on, too. Unfortunately, we don't know about that profit picture for sure, as the company is way late in its regulatory filings because of -- you guessed it -- a review of past stock-option granting practices still in process.

Margin

1/2006

4/2006

7/2006

Gross

29.3%

35%

37.2%

Operating

(11.4%)

(0.5%)

5.3%

Net

(19.1%)

(6.8%)

(1.7%)

Growth (YOY)

1/2006

4/2006

7/2006

Revenue

28.1%

29.7%

29.3%
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

One Fool says:
Finisar's debtors have started to lose patience with the lengthy financial review, and the failure to file 10-Q statements has accelerated the due dates on $240 million of long-term debt. Finisar has until June 24 to come up with its documentation or be forced to repay that debt.

That's the entire long-term credit balance, and last we heard -- back in July 2006 -- the company only had about $104 million of cash equivalents on hand.

In other words, I bet the bean counters are burning the midnight oil -- and the 3 a.m. wick, and the elevensies candle -- to get the numbers straight before time runs out. It would behoove them to set the record straight alongside this year-end report, if at all possible.

It's a shame to see these delays, delisting notices, and allegations of shady accounting in such a well-positioned company. As the likes of Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) bury miles upon miles of fiber-optic cables that need endpoint connectors, switches, and other infrastructure components from Finisar's customers, this stock is essentially a bet on simple, industrywide bandwidth growth.

But reality can be a pain sometimes. If there were tricky practices in the past, it's better to bite the bullet now than to live through a real Nasdaq delisting with all the loss of investor confidence and respect that brings. So keep working, boys. Your shareholders and debt holders alike deserve to see the end of this long, dark tunnel.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. You can check out Anders' holdings if you like, and Foolish disclosure will help you find the road ahead.