Juniper turns around in 2015, worried about 2016

Juniper Networks has managed to disappoint Wall Street with revenue growth, a turnaround from loss to profit and earnings per share better than analyst forecasts. The problem? It doesn't like next year's outlook.

Its Q4 2015 revenue of US$1,319.6 million was 20 per cent better than Q4 2014 and six per cent ahead of Q3, with a GAAP net income of nearly $198 million for the quarter. In Q4 of 2014, the network kit maker reported a loss of $797 million.

The company added five per cent over its full year 2014 revenue to hit $4,858 million, with $634 million profit compared to a full-year loss of $334.3 million for 2014.

The dominant routing business put on 24 per cent year-on-year to $648 million for the quarter, switching hit $210 million for the quarter (up 21 per cent year-on-year), services revenue was up 12 per cent to $346 million, and security revenue grew 20 per cent to $116 million.

The security segment did, however, suffer a three per cent quarter-on-quarter drop, which the company attributes to customer deployment schedules.

In geographic terms, the Europe, Middle East and Africa region was disappointing with a two per cent year-on-year drop, offset by growth in the Americas and APAC regions.

It's the outlook that didn't please, however. Juniper's apparently fearful of the global environment for 2016, and that, combined with “potential lumpiness in customer investment patterns” has it predicting a revenue slide for the next quarter, to $1,170 million.

Current CFO Robyn Denholm has announced her departure from the company. Finance senior veep Ken Miller will step into the role, with “several months” allotted to the transition. ®