($137) JNPR wallups estimates, raises guidance for year 24cvs18c
With its 2000 fourth-quarter results coming in ahead of market estimates, Juniper Networks (JNPR) today gave a boost to a networking market wracked by fears of a slowdown in infrastructure spending.
Juniper reported pro forma net income of $84.6 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $295.4 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31. A survey of industry analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial estimated Juniper would earn 18 cents a share.
For the same period a year ago, Juniper earned $4.8 million, or 2 cents a share, on revenue of $45.4 million.
Chief Executive Officer Scott Kriens and Chief Financial Officer Marcel Gani remained bullish on Juniper's outlook for 2001 and raised the company's revenue guidance for the year. Kriens said he expects Juniper's revenue for 2001 to fall between $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion, more than double the $673.5 million in revenue the company reported for 2000. Juniper had earlier estimated revenue would hit between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion for 2001.
Juniper makes terabit switchers and routers used to direct and deliver traffic between optical networks and the Internet. The company is considered a threat to the market dominance of Cisco Systems (CSCO) as many industry studies show Juniper with about a 30 percent stake of the router market. Cisco maintains between a 60 percent and 70 percent stake.
Kriens said that he believes Juniper has a 12-month technology lead on its competitors, which typically include companies liks Avici Systems (AVCI), Extreme Networks (EXTR) and Redback Networks (RBAK). Kriens added that overseas sales were also growing and accounted for 35 percent of Juniper's total revenue in 2000.
But Kriens said that with recent industry shakeouts it "is unclear whether this is a slowdown or a self-inflicted (wound)" and that Juniper was not immune to problems that have battered other networking companies share prices.
"2000 was a very strong year for us, as our results show," said Kriens, in a conference call to discuss the company's numbers. "But we see a lot of disruption and dislocation coming up. The market is not about dotcoms, but about the virtual value chain."
In after-hours trading, Juniper's shares were up 1.1 percent, or $1.44, at $132.94. |
