Yahoo Finance Juniper (JNPR) Misses Q1 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR reported soft first-quarter 2024 results, with both the bottom and top lines missing the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. The financial results arrived amid merger plans with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The all-cash transaction for $40.00 per share, valued at approximately $14 billion, is anticipated to be finalized in late 2024 or early 2025, subject to the fulfillment of satisfactory conditions.
Net Income
On a GAAP basis, the net loss in the first quarter was $0.8 million or 0.00 cents per share against income of $85.4 million or 26 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. The 101% year-over-year deterioration was mainly owing to lower revenue generation and increasing operating expenses, partially balanced by a higher gross margin and tax benefit.
Non-GAAP net income was $96.6 million or 29 cents per share compared with respective figures of $156.6 million or 48 cents per share in the prior-year period. The bottom line lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10 cents.
Juniper Networks, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Juniper Networks, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Juniper Networks, Inc. Quote
Revenues
Quarterly revenues were $1.149 billion, down from $1.37 billion in the year-ago quarter, owing to softness in Cloud, Enterprise and Service Provider verticals. The top line also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.23 billion.
Product revenues were $652 million, declining 29% year over year. Service revenues totaled $497 million, up 8%, backed by solid sales of software support, SaaS and hardware support contracts and SaaS.
By vertical, Cloud revenues declined to $250 million from $264.9 million in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year decrease was attributable to softness across Campus and Branch, Data Center and Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services.
Revenues from Service Provider declined to $382 million from $550 million reported in the prior-year period due to a slowdown across all customer solutions.
Net sales from Enterprise were $517 million, down 7% year over year. The fall was due to weakness in Campus and Branch and Data Center, partially offset by increases in Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services and Wide Area Networking.
Effective from the first quarter of 2024, the company has changed the names of its Customer Solution revenue categories. AI-Driven Enterprise was changed to Campus and Branch, Automated WAN Solutions was changed to Wide Area Networking and Cloud-Ready Data Center was altered to Data Center. Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services category remain unchanged.
By customer solution, Wide Area Networking revenues amounted to $350 million, down 26% year over year. Net sales from Campus and Branch were $241 million, down 24% year-over-year. Revenues from Data Center were $163 million, down 16% year over year. Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services reported $395 million, up 2% year-over-year.
By region, revenues from the Americas fell to $666 million from $798.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenues from Europe, the Middle East and Africa declined to $311 million from $370 million in the prior-year quarter. In the Asia Pacific, net sales were down 15% year over year to $172 million. Declining trends in Cloud, Service Provider and Enterprise verticals primarily led to the downfall.
Other Details
Gross profit totaled at $680.9 million compared with $771.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP gross margin rose to 61.2% from 57.8% in the prior-year quarter. The uptick was mainly driven by a favorable software revenue mix and lower inventory-related expenses. Non-GAAP operating margin decreased to 10.6% from 14.8% reported in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $582.3 million, marking a decline of 1%.
Cash Flow & Liquidity
In first-quarter 2024, Juniper generated $325 million of cash from operating activities compared with $191.5 million in the prior-year quarter.
As of Mar 31, 2024, the company had $1.53 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments with $1.6 billion of long-term debt.
Zacks Rank
Juniper currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Upcoming Releases
Arista Networks, Inc. ANET is slated to announce first-quarter 2024 results on May 7, after the market close. The stock, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 at present, is likely to benefit from strong momentum and diversification across its top verticals and product lines. The company has a software-driven, data-centric approach to help customers build their cloud architecture and enhance their cloud experience. Arista has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 17.5% and delivered an earnings surprise of 13.3%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.
Pinterest Inc. PINS is slated to report first-quarter 2024 results on Apr 30, after the closing bell. The stock, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1, delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 37.4%. PINS has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 20%.
Turtle Beach Corporation HEAR is slated to report first-quarter 2024 results on May 7, after the closing bell. It develops and markets gaming headset solutions for various platforms, including video game and entertainment consoles, handheld consoles, personal computers, tablets and mobile devices under the Turtle Beach brand. It has a Zacks Rank #2.
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