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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Attack II - A Complete Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JRI who wrote (5557)	4/10/2001 9:07:41 PM
From: stomper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52237

FWIW: Juniper Networks 1st-Quarter Profit, Sales Surged, Analysts Say By Scott Lanman Sunnyvale, California, April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Juniper Networks Inc., the No. 2 maker of high-capacity data-traffic routers, will report Thursday that first-quarter profit rose, excluding certain items, as sales quintupled, analysts said. Profit, without acquisition and stock-option costs, surged to 25 cents a share from 3 cents in the year-earlier period, according to a poll of analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial. Revenue climbed to $336.5 million, the average of eight analysts surveyed by First Call, from $63.9 million. Juniper was able to leave the quarter's estimates unchanged as other networking-equipment makers lowered forecasts because customers needed its gear to clear information bottlenecks on data networks, Salomon Smith Barney analyst Alex Henderson said. He estimates Juniper picked up 3 percentage points of market share at the expense of leader Cisco Systems Inc. in the period. ``We think the demand for the equipment continues to be there despite the cutbacks in spending,'' said Henderson, who rates Juniper a ``buy.'' Shares of the Sunnyvale, California-based company rose $7.97, or 24 percent, to $41.16 in late trading, rebounding from a 19- month low of $28.60 last Wednesday. The stock has lost 83 percent since touching a record $244.50 in October. Lower Expectations The stock's decline reflects investors' expectations for slower revenue and profit growth than in past quarters, said Jeff Bianchi, a portfolio manager at Aeltus Investment Management, which owned about 267,000 Juniper shares as of December. The estimated revenue represents a 14 percent increase from the fourth quarter, in line with Juniper's January forecast of a 12 percent to 15 percent rise. That's after increases of 47 percent, 78 percent and 77 percent in the prior three quarters. The company probably won't surpass forecasts as it has in previous quarters, and might miss for the first time, though the share price accounts for most of those expectations, Bianchi said. ``I hope some growth expectations have been moderated and tempered,'' he said. Juniper's largest customers in the fourth quarter were Ericsson AB and WorldCom Inc., which accounted for more than 10 percent of revenue. Customers may defer purchases in this quarter while Juniper prepares to introduce the successor to its flagship M160 router, which was unveiled a year ago, Henderson said. Juniper had 33.5 percent of the $835.5 million market for high-capacity routers in the fourth quarter, compared with 64.7 percent for Cisco, according to Dell'Oro Group, a market researcher. Two years earlier, Cisco had 85 percent and Juniper had 7.1 percent. Dell'Oro includes Juniper's revenue from services, which are excluded from Cisco's figures. Henderson said he expects the company to forecast second- quarter revenue that's little changed from the first quarter and maintain its full-year projection of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion, accounting for sales of the new router, which customers are testing prior to the formal company announcement. Such a second-quarter forecast may disappoint some investors, Bianchi said. He's sticking it out, though. ``We're owning Juniper for the longer-term story,'' he said. ``We're fairly bullish in terms of network traffic and the need for Juniper- and Cisco-type of equipment.''