Juniper sees a flat third quarter

Friday, 11 July 2003, 19:30 IST
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SUNNYVALE: Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) beat Wall Street's second-quarter financial targets Thursday evening but warned that the third period will be seasonally soft. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet gearmaker posted second-quarter earnings of $14 million, or 3 cents a share, up from $6.2 million, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 41% from a year ago and 5% sequentially, hitting $165 million. Analysts were looking for Juniper to post a 2-cent profit on $159 million in sales, according to a Multex tally. But investor optimism over the strong second-quarter performance faded when Juniper offered guidance for the rest of 2003. CEO Scott Kriens told analysts on a postclose conference call that third-quarter numbers would be flat with second-quarter levels, due primarily to what execs called seasonal weakness in Europe. The downturn is hardly surprising since Juniper's two largest customers and sales partners, Ericsson (ERICY:Nasdaq - news - commentary - research - analysis) and Siemens (SI:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis), are based in Europe. The flat guidance wasn't far below Wall Street's expectations. But traders had been hoping for more from the company, which is seen as a proxy for larger trends within the closely watched communications equipment industry. Notably, a flat quarter would halt Juniper's streak of three sequential revenue improvements, a run that in itself was unusual in the growth-starved telecom business. Juniper shares, which dropped 5% in regular trading Thursday, rallied slightly after the earnings report before falling back on the guidance disappointment. The stock slipped 34 cents to $13.77 in postclose action.
Source: IANS
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