By Emon Reiser

Shares for Ribbon Communications were on track for their largest percentage decrease in more than a decade after the company blamed project delays for lower fourth-quarter revenue.

The stock fell 30% to $1.89 a share, on pace for its largest percentage decrease since March 2015. Shares hit a new low, down nearly 34% year to date.

The Plano, Texas, communications technology company reported $227.3 million in revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with $251.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $241.3 million.

Half of the shortfall was associated with projects already in the company's backlog, where delays pushed out project completion milestones or product shipments, delaying revenue recognition to future quarters, Chief Executive Bruce McClelland said during a call with analysts. That included one of Ribbon's primary U.S. customers, where deployments slowed during their recent restructuring.

"The delayed projects are not lost business and included deliverables already in backlog but with delayed deployment schedules," McClelland said. "We also had several orders impacted by budget availability."

Ribbon Communications reported a profit of $89.1 million, or 50 cents a share during the fourth quarter, compared with $6.4 million, or four cents, a year earlier.

Adjusted for one-time items, earnings per share were 59 cents, compared with the 11 cents in adjusted earnings per share analysts expected.

For the first quarter, Ribbon guided for project revenue between $160 million and $170 million. Analysts expect $170.2 million in first-quarter revenue.

Write to Emon Reiser at emon.reiser@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 06, 2026 12:46 ET (17:46 GMT)

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