From NYTimes:
October 12, 2001
Juniper Posts Loss but Exceeds Wall St. Forecast
By CHRIS GAITHER
AN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11 Juniper Networks (news/quote), the maker of networking equipment, said today that it posted a loss for its fiscal third quarter, but the company exceeded Wall Street's expectations after excluding several extraordinary charges.
Shares of Juniper soared after the report, which came out after regular trading. The shares jumped $4.04, to $20.68, after gaining $1.64 before the announcement.
Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said it lost $29.7 million, or 9 cents a share, during the quarter ended Sept. 30. The company, a competitor to Cisco Systems (news/quote) in the Internet router market, earned $58.1 million, or 17 cents a share, during the period last year.
Revenue for the quarter was $201.7 million, half a million dollars more than the same period last year. Scott Kriens, the chief executive, said he expected about the same revenue for the current quarter.
After removing $78.9 million for items like investment write-downs and a charge to contract manufacturers, Juniper reported a profit of $32.5 million, or 10 cents a share, a penny more than the company had predicted.
Analysts had expected earnings, excluding the special charges, of 7 cents a share on sales of $188 million, according to a consensus survey by Thomson Financial/First Call.
Networking providers have been hurt badly by the economic downturn, as major customers in the telecommunications business have tightened their purse strings. Qwest Communications (news/quote), WorldCom (news/quote) and Ericsson (news/quote) each provided more than 10 percent of Juniper's business during the quarter.
With the market in the United States struggling, Juniper turned overseas for business. Thirty-four percent of its revenue came from international customers, compared with 28 percent during the second quarter.
"We're large enough to weather the storms, and we're also agile enough to maneuver around the worst of it," Mr. Kriens said.
Paul Johnson, a senior technology analyst with Robertson Stephens, praised Juniper for its clean balance sheet and said it had fared remarkably well given the economic challenges. He said that Juniper reported a 20 percent operating margin, while Cisco, a larger company with a decade more experience, was struggling to break even.
"This looks a lot like the Cisco of the '90's," Mr. Johnson said of Juniper, "which is why I think so many people are interested in this company."
With its stock trading at a fraction of its 52-week high of $244.50, Juniper said today that its board had approved spending as much as $200 million to buy back shares during the next two years.
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