Juniper Q4 Profit Soars On Growth From Enterprise, Service Provider

Juniper Networks Thursday ended its fiscal year on a high note, reporting record fourth-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates and show growth in both Juniper's U.S. service provider and enterprise business.

For its fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, 2013, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper reported revenue of $1.27 billion, up 12 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The company reported a net income of $151.8 million, up 59 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Juniper's annual revenue for 2013 was $4.7 billion, up 7 percent from 2012. Net income for the year was $439.8 million, up a whopping 136 percent from $186.5 million last year.

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"We are building up a strong base," said Shaygan Kheradpir, Juniper's newly appointed CEO, during a conference call with analysts Thursday. "We delivered record revenue this quarter, good growth on a year-over-year basis and a strong book-to-bill. I continue to see substantial opportunities for Juniper to grow and deliver value."

Juniper's fourth-quarter earnings come just 10 days after hedge fund and Juniper investor Elliott Management Corp. urged Juniper to slow R&D spend, buy back shares and take other cost-cutting measures.

While Kheradpir, who started as CEO on Jan. 1, didn't address Elliott Management directly on the call, he did say the company is compiling an "Integrated Operating Plan" to drive profitable growth and shareholder value. He said part of the plan is to rebuild Juniper's "get-it-done culture" and to scale back on R&D costs.

"I will present the details of this plan to you more fully in a few weeks," Kheradpir said.

At Juniper's Global Partner Conference last week, Kheradpir told partners he plans on tapping into Juniper's service provider DNA to help the company and its channel build out the highly intelligent, or "high IQ," networks customers are demanding, especially as cloud ecosystems become more and more advanced.

Juniper attributed its record quarter to growth within both its enterprise and service provider business. The company said Americas service provider revenue was up 6 percent year-over-year, and Americas enterprise revenue was up 29 percent year-over-year. On the enterprise side, Juniper said the federal and financial services markets were especially strong.

Quarterly revenue for Juniper's service provider business, as a whole, was $827 million, up 12 percent year-over-year. Enterprise revenue for the quarter was $447 million, up 11 percent year-over-year.

Juniper said its routing business for the quarter saw a revenue of $618 million, up 16 percent compared to the same period last year. Switching revenue was $199 million, up 36 percent year-over-year.

Juniper's security business -- a consistent pain point for the company and one of the product lines Elliott Management specifically urged Juniper to review -- saw revenue for the quarter decline 7 percent year-over-year to $157 million.

Looking ahead, Juniper said it expects revenue for its first fiscal quarter to fall between $1.12 billion and $1.16 billion.

Juniper's stock was up nearly 3 percent in after-hours trading. According to Bloomberg, Juniper stock has climbed 33 percent since Kheradpir was appointed CEO on Nov. 13, with a third of that jump coming after the Elliot Management filing on Jan 13.

PUBLISHED JAN. 23, 2014