Juniper Q1 Revenue Jumps 26 Percent

“We have a $2 billion company in a $20 billion market, and our challenge is to focus on our customers and our opportunities and to execute,” said Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, during a conference call. “No one questions the opportunity that’s ahead of us and the potential for Juniper to realize the magnitude of that opportunity. The work of recent months and the priority of the [future] will be to remain focused and to let our execution speak for itself.”

During the quarter, Juniper saw “solid channel performance” from Ingram Micro, other distribution partners and its several thousand worldwide solution providers, Kriens said. Direct sales for the quarter dropped to 26 percent of Juniper’s revenue, executives said.

Also during the quarter, Juniper named a new channel chief, former IBM-er Frank Vitagliano, who replaced Tushar Kothari as vice president of worldwide channels in March.

On the enterprise front, Juniper grew sales of its DX application acceleration devices compared to the fourth quarter, and also saw strength in its new line of Secure Services Gateway appliances, which combine security and routing features. Launched in February, both orders and shipments of SSG have surpassed Juniper’s early projections, Kriens said.

Sales of firewall and SSL security products and J-series routers were flat, while the vendor’s WX WAN optimization products were soft, Kriens said, noting that WX sales are already picking up in the second quarter.

For the quarter ended March 31, Juniper reported earnings of $75.8 million, or 13 cents per share, compared to $75.4 million, or 13 cents per share, the same quarter a year ago. Juniper’s income would have risen 2 cents per share excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expenses.

Excluding charges, earnings hit $113.4 million, or 19 cents per share, which met analysts’ estimates as compiled by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Revenue for the quarter climbed to $566.7 million, up from $449.1 million in the first quarter a year ago, but missed analysts’ estimates of $571 million.

For the second quarter, Juniper expects revenue to reach between $560 million and $570 million, representing 14 percent to 16 percent growth year over year.