Shares of communications equipment company Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) tumbled 10.2% through 11:55 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning, despite easily beating expectations for fiscal second-quarter earnings.

Heading into the quarter ended April 29, analysts had forecast Ciena would earn only $0.61 per share (adjusted for one-time items) on sales of $1.09 billion. In fact, Ciena earned $0.74 per share on sales of $1.13 billion -- thus beating expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Actual earnings as calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) were only $0.38 per share.  

But if Ciena's results beat analyst estimates then why are the shares down so sharply this morning? Generally speaking, when an earnings beat results in a stock sell-off, the reason is that guidance disappointed -- and indeed, that appears to be the case here as well.

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Source Fool.com