CIEN vs NOW vs PATH Stock Comparison

Ciena, ServiceNow and UiPath Prices as of Oct 28, 2026 Peers: Industry group
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CIEN Ciena Corp
$363.26 +5.6% 1M +98.5% 1Y
Market cap
$51.55B
P/E
78.9x
Revenue (TTM)
$6.02B
Div. yield
–
Networking Equipment Technology
5 wins
NOW ServiceNow, Inc.
$149.85 +14.0% 1M -20.1% 1Y
Market cap
$155.54B
P/E
107.3x
Revenue (TTM)
$15.43B
Div. yield
–
Business Process Automation Technology
2 wins
PATH UiPath, Inc.
$14.19 +16.1% 1M -12.2% 1Y
Market cap
$6.47B
P/E
20.4x
Revenue (TTM)
$1.72B
Div. yield
–
Business Process Automation Technology
4 wins

Head to Head

11 decided of 12

Ciena leads on 5 of the 12 questions below (Ciena 5, UiPath 4, ServiceNow 2). Which ones matter depends on what you are buying for; a cheap multiple and slow growth often come together.

QuestionCIENNOWPATHLeader
Larger companyMarket capitalisation $51.55B $155.54B $6.47B NOW
Cheaper on earningsLower P/E, profitable companies only 78.9x 107.3x 20.4x PATH
Cheaper on forward earningsLower price / next fiscal year consensus EPS 47.8x 38.9x 18.7x PATH
Faster revenue growthRevenue growth, trailing twelve months +32.6% +21.8% +15.0% CIEN
More profitableNet margin, trailing twelve months 10.9% 9.4% 21.0% PATH
Better return on capitalReturn on invested capital 12.4% 5.2% — CIEN
Less leveragedLower net debt / EBITDA 0.7x 0.8x — CIEN
Higher dividend yieldTrailing dividend yield — — — –
Better 1-year returnPrice return, last 12 months +98.5% -20.1% -12.2% CIEN
Better 5-year returnAnnualised price return, 5 years +46.3%/yr +1.4%/yr -22.4%/yr CIEN
Less volatileAnnualised volatility, 1 year 77.9% 58.8% 64.0% NOW
Higher overall scoreMean of the five percentile scores vs peers 56/100 51/100 77/100 PATH

Percentile Scorecard

CIENNOWPATH

Each axis is the mean percentile of its metrics against the company's industry group. 100 is the best in the group, 50 the middle.

Scores by Axis

AxisCIENNOWPATH
Valuation 21 #88 of 111 33 #68 of 101 78 #23 of 101
Growth 94 #7 of 108 50 #49 of 97 88 #13 of 97
Profitability 84 #18 of 104 80 #20 of 94 73 #26 of 94
Financial Health 43 #66 of 115 53 #51 of 108 89 #13 of 108
Shareholder Returns 36 #50 of 78 38 #40 of 64 56 #29 of 64
Overall 56 51 77
  • CIEN ranked among 121 companies in Computer Hardware
  • NOW ranked among 114 companies in Business Applications
  • PATH ranked among 114 companies in Business Applications

Price Performance

Price return, split-adjusted, before dividends. Click a name to hide or show it.

Returns

PeriodCIENNOWPATHSPY
1 month +5.6%+14.0%+16.1% +0.9%
3 months +9.9%+29.4%+12.7% +5.9%
6 months -23.6%+68.6%+36.7% +8.5%
Year to date +55.3%-2.2%-13.4% +13.3%
1 year +98.5%-20.1%-12.2% +12.4%
3 years +785.6%+35.2%-5.0% +88.1%
3 years, per year +107.0%+10.6%-1.7% +23.5%
5 years +569.1%+7.4%-71.8% +68.2%
5 years, per year +46.3%+1.4%-22.4% +11.0%
10 years +1,761.9%+770.2%— +263.4%
10 years, per year +34.0%+24.2%— +13.8%

Risk

MeasureCIENNOWPATHSPY
Volatility, 1Y 77.9%58.8%64.0% 12.7%
Downside volatility, 1Y 82.8%61.5%65.2% 12.7%
Beta vs S&P 500, 1Y 2.790.601.06 1.00
Return / volatility, 1Y 1.26-0.34-0.19 0.98
Max drawdown, 5Y -49.7%-64.5%-83.7% -25.4%
From 52-week high -42.1%-20.1%-26.4% -0.9%
52-week high $627.00$187.58$19.29 $779.14
52-week low $176.45$83.00$9.38 $631.97

Valuation History

Weekly multiples on trailing twelve-month fundamentals. Negative or extreme readings (a loss year, a collapsed denominator) are left out so the chart stays readable.

MultipleCIENNOWPATH
P/E now vs peer median 78.9xmedian 33.5x 107.3xmedian 27.6x 20.4xmedian 27.6x
P/S now vs peer median 8.6xmedian 2.8x 10.1xmedian 2.7x 3.8xmedian 2.7x
EV/EBITDA now vs peer median 58.1xmedian 19.6x 46.0xmedian 17.4x 17.5xmedian 17.4x
P/FCF now vs peer median 63.3xmedian 29.8x 32.7xmedian 15.8x 17.8xmedian 15.8x
P/B now vs peer median 16.9xmedian 2.9x 11.9xmedian 3.2x 3.3xmedian 3.2x
PEG now vs peer median 1.76median 1.10 -31.41median 0.84 0.33median 0.84

Financial History

Reported figures by fiscal period, placed on the calendar year (or quarter) each period ended in, so companies with different fiscal years line up.

Trailing twelve monthsCIENNOWPATH
Revenue $6.02B $15.43B $1.72B
Gross profit $2.65B $11.28B $1.42B
Operating income $738.95M $1.49B $152.95M
Net income $654.41M $1.45B $361.92M
Free cash flow $814.36M $4.75B $362.96M
R&D $924.94M $3.47B $368.32M
EPS (diluted) $4.48 $1.39 $0.69
Cash & equivalents $2.45B $2.39B $607.41M
Total debt $3.23B $7.52B –
Shares (diluted) 145.97M 1.04B 523.01M
Enterprise value $45.11B $134.81B $1.01B

All Metrics

58 metrics · best in bold

Bold marks the best reading: the lowest positive value for multiples, leverage and payout, the highest for everything else. The bar under each value is its percentile against that company's own peers. Hover a value for its rank and the peer median.

Valuation

12 metrics
MetricCIENNOWPATH
P/E 78.9x 107.3x 20.4x
P/FCF 63.3x 32.7x 17.8x
P/Operating cash flow 48.9x 29.2x 17.3x
P/S 8.6x 10.1x 3.8x
P/B 16.9x 11.9x 3.3x
P/Tangible book 18.0x 16.4x 3.5x
EV/EBITDA 58.1x 46.0x 17.5x
EV/EBIT 70.6x 106.1x 33.9x
EV/Revenue 8.7x 10.3x 3.0x
EV/FCF 64.0x 33.4x 14.3x
EV/Operating cash flow 49.4x 29.7x 13.9x
PEG (3Y EPS CAGR) 1.76 -31.41 0.33

Growth

14 metrics
MetricCIENNOWPATH
Revenue growth (1Y) 32.6% 21.8% 15.0%
Revenue CAGR (3Y) 12.5% 22.1% 14.4%
Gross profit growth (1Y) 40.6% 14.1% 14.6%
Gross profit CAGR (3Y) 13.3% 19.2% 13.8%
Operating income growth (1Y) 200.1% -14.9% 430.0%
Operating income CAGR (3Y) 29.1% 32.1% 38.3%
Net income growth (1Y) 364.5% -16.5% 1,695%
Net income CAGR (3Y) 43.5% -3.1% 59.2%
EPS growth (1Y) 359.9% -16.2% 1,763%
EPS CAGR (3Y) 44.8% -3.4% 61.2%
Operating cash flow growth (1Y) 34.5% 10.2% 11.5%
Operating cash flow CAGR (3Y) 201.2% 21.8% 27.9%
Free cash flow growth (1Y) 34.5% 20.0% 17.2%
Free cash flow CAGR (3Y) 95.4% 25.9% 29.3%

Profitability

14 metrics
MetricCIENNOWPATH
Gross margin 44.1% 73.1% 82.6%
EBITDA margin 14.9% 22.3% 17.2%
Operating margin 12.3% 9.7% 8.9%
Pretax margin 12.1% 13.1% 12.3%
Net margin 10.9% 9.4% 21.0%
FCF margin 13.5% 30.8% 21.1%
Operating cash flow margin 17.5% 34.6% 21.7%
Return on equity 22.0% 11.3% 18.8%
Return on assets 9.3% 4.6% 12.5%
Return on invested capital 12.4% 5.2% –
Return on capital employed 13.1% 7.5% 7.3%
Asset turnover 0.9x 0.5x 0.6x
Cash conversion (OCF / net income) 1.6x 3.7x 1.0x
Stock comp / revenue 3.5% 10.4% 13.6%

Financial Health

11 metrics
MetricCIENNOWPATH
Debt / assets 40.4% 23.6% –
Debt / equity 1.1x 0.6x –
Net debt / EBITDA 0.7x 0.8x –
Debt / FCF 4.0x 1.6x –
Liabilities / assets 61.8% 58.9% 33.0%
Equity / assets 38.2% 41.1% 67.0%
Interest coverage 10.6x 14.6x –
Current ratio 3.8x 0.7x 2.4x
Quick ratio 2.8x 0.6x 2.1x
Cash ratio 1.9x 0.4x 1.6x
Altman Z-score 7.46 5.77 4.49

Shareholder Returns

7 metrics
MetricCIENNOWPATH
Dividend yield – – –
Net buyback yield -0.9% 1.7% 3.9%
Shareholder yield -0.9% 1.7% 3.9%
Payout ratio (earnings) – – –
Payout ratio (FCF) – – –
Dividend growth (1Y) – – –
Dividend CAGR (3Y) – – –

Analyst Estimates

Solid lines are reported fiscal-year results; dashed lines are the consensus for the years ahead. Hover a year for the analysts' high and low, and how each result compared with its estimate.

ConsensusCIENNOWPATH
Forward P/E 47.8xFY2026 38.9xFY2026 18.7xFY2026
EPS, next fiscal year $7.60FY2026 $3.85FY2026 $0.76FY2026
EPS growth, next FY +187.9%FY2026 +9.7%FY2026 +5.6%FY2026
EPS growth, the year after +64.7% +27.0% +14.5%
Revenue, next fiscal year $6.86BFY2026 $15.25BFY2026 $1.87BFY2026
Revenue growth, next FY +43.8%FY2026 +14.8%FY2026 +16.3%FY2026
Revenue growth, the year after +18.0% +17.7% -3.3%

Institutional Ownership

13F filings, quarter ended Jun 30, 2026
HoldersCIENNOWPATH
Held by institutions 92.9% 81.6% 79.0%
Institutions holding 1,220 2,224 525
Change in shares held, QoQ -1.7% -2.1% +14.3%
Institutions buying 729 1,285 276
Institutions selling 379 779 169
Buyers to sellers 1.92 1.65 1.63

Return Correlation

Daily returns, last 12 months

1.00 means two stocks move in lockstep, 0 that they move independently. Pairs below about 0.5 diversify each other.

CIENNOWPATH
CIEN 1.00 -0.21 -0.07
NOW -0.21 1.00 0.64
PATH -0.07 0.64 1.00

Add a Peer

Largest companies in the same industry

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which is bigger, CIEN, NOW and PATH?

ServiceNow (NOW) is the largest by market capitalisation: Ciena (CIEN) $51.55B, ServiceNow (NOW) $155.54B, UiPath (PATH) $6.47B.

Which stock is cheaper, CIEN, NOW and PATH?

UiPath (PATH) trades on the lowest price-to-earnings ratio (Ciena (CIEN) 78.9x, ServiceNow (NOW) 107.3x, UiPath (PATH) 20.4x). On next year's consensus earnings, UiPath (PATH) is cheapest (Ciena (CIEN) 47.8x, ServiceNow (NOW) 38.9x, UiPath (PATH) 18.7x). A lower multiple can reflect slower expected growth, so read it next to the growth figures.

Which company is growing faster?

Ciena (CIEN) grew revenue fastest over the trailing twelve months: Ciena (CIEN) +32.6%, ServiceNow (NOW) +21.8%, UiPath (PATH) +15.0%.

Which company is more profitable?

UiPath (PATH) has the highest net margin (Ciena (CIEN) 10.9%, ServiceNow (NOW) 9.4%, UiPath (PATH) 21.0%). On return on invested capital, Ciena (CIEN) leads (Ciena (CIEN) 12.4%, ServiceNow (NOW) 5.2%).

Which stock has performed better?

Over the past year Ciena (CIEN) returned the most: Ciena (CIEN) +98.5%, ServiceNow (NOW) -20.1%, UiPath (PATH) -12.2%. Over five years, Ciena (CIEN) compounded fastest (Ciena (CIEN) +46.3%/yr, ServiceNow (NOW) +1.4%/yr, UiPath (PATH) -22.4%/yr). Returns are price only, before dividends.

Which stock is riskier?

By one-year price volatility, ServiceNow (NOW) has been the steadiest (Ciena (CIEN) 77.9%, ServiceNow (NOW) 58.8%, UiPath (PATH) 64.0%). Volatility measures how widely the price swings, not the risk of the business.

Which is the better stock, CIEN, NOW and PATH?

There is no single answer; it depends on what you are buying for. On the 12 head-to-head measures on this page, Ciena (CIEN) leads on 5. Business Quant does not give investment advice; use the comparison as a starting point for your own research.

Data from SEC filings, exchange prices and consensus estimates, via Business Quant. Percentile scores compare each company with its own peer group, so two companies' scores are each relative to different peers unless you rank against the whole market. Price returns exclude dividends. Nothing on this page is investment advice.