Juniper Networks Shares Sank, then Recovered: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Juniper Networks (NYS: JNPR) sank by 11% at the open this morning, but have trimmed those losses to a modest 3% after reporting earnings yesterday.

So what: Fourth quarter revenue shrank 6% to $1.12 billion, with adjusted earnings per share declining by a third, to $0.28. Full year results were a little better, with revenue growing 9% to $4.4 billion and the $1.19 per share profit was just a 10% drop.

Now what: CEO Kevin Johnson said the softness was due to weak demand from service providers, but that the company was still able to deliver record revenues for the year. The fourth quarter was unusually slow, since some of Juniper's largest customers had cut back spending. The company expects the near-term to "remain challenging," and the next quarter's projected profit of $0.11 to $0.14 is far shy of the $0.26 that the Street was looking for.

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