Juniper Networks Q4 And Full-Year 2024 Earnings: 5 Things To Know

Juniper Networks this week revealed its Q4 and full-year 2024 financials amid uncertainty around its anticipated $14 billion megamerger with HPE thanks to the U.S. Justice Department suing to block the deal.

Juniper Networks this week revealed its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings amid talks of its anticipated merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) coming under fire.

HPE and Juniper Networks first revealed plans to come together last year, but the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a complaint seeking to block the closing of the transaction, citing reduced competition for American businesses. The two companies have pledged to fight for the deal in court.

In the meantime, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper Networks beat Wall Street expectations,

reporting significant growth in product orders during its most recent fiscal quarter, especially within its enterprise, service provider, and cloud verticals. The cloud segment in particular experienced triple-digit year-over-year growth. Despite reporting a decrease in full-year revenues and net income, Juniper Networks remains optimistic, citing strong demand and momentum heading into the next quarter.

Here are Juniper Networks' Q4 and full-year 2024 financial results.

Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Performance

Juniper's Q4 financial results showed the company returning to revenue growth on a year-over-year basis. Juniper ended the final quarter of the year with revenue of $1.40 billion, up 3 percent year-over-year. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was 64 cents, an increase of 3 cents year-over-year.

Campus and Branch revenue grew 4 percent year-over-year when compared to Q4 2023. Data Center revenue increased 30 percent year-over-year. Wide Area Networking revenue was down 7 percent year-over-year.

The company posted total Software and Related Services revenue of $381 million, which was up 6 percent year-over-year. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) grew 23 percent year-over-year and Juniper exited the year with $474 million in ARR.

Juniper's total Security segment pulled in $147 million, down 8 percent year-over-year.

By The Verticals

In Q4 2024, Juniper's Enterprise segment was up 4 percent year-over-year to $673 million, primarily driven by Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services and, to a lesser extent, Data Center

and Wide Area Networking, while Campus and Branch remained flat year-over-year, according to the company. For the full year, however, Enterprise was down 9 percent compared to 2023, which Juniper said was due to Campus and Branch, and to a lesser extent, Wide Area Networking and Data Center, partially offset by an increase in Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services.

The Service Provider segment was down 9 percent during the quarter to $363 million, which Juniper said was primarily due to Wide Area Networking, and to a lesser extent, Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services and Data Center, partially offset by an increase in Campus and Branch. Service Provider fell 19 percent for the full year 2024 due to declines in every customer solution segment, Juniper said.

The Cloud segment climbed 16 percent year-over year to $368 million, thanks to Data Center, and to a lesser extent, Wide Area Networking and Hardware Maintenance and Professional Services, partially offset by a decrease in Campus and Branch. Cloud was the only vertical that had overall growth in 2024, climbing 6 percent for the year, which Juniper said was driven by Data Center, partially offset by decreases in Campus and Branch, Wide Area Networking and Hardware Maintenance

and Professional Services.

Of Juniper's top 10 customers for the fourth and final quarter of the year, four were Cloud, four were Service Provider, and two were Enterprise. The company's top 10 customers accounted for 37 percent of Juniper's total revenue in 2024.

Product Order Recovery

Juniper's product orders delivered better than expected results in the fourth quarter, growing more than 40 percent on a year-over-year basis. Cloud orders also continued to have strong momentum in the last quarter of the year, growing approximately 200 percent year-over-year. Service Provider and Enterprise orders also grew double-digits year-over-year, with orders for Mist and other products attached to the Mist cloud growing more than 25 percent year-over-year.

Juniper ended the year with a backlog of $739 million in orders, which marked 30 percent growth compared to Q4 2023.

“We saw another quarter of strong demand during the fourth quarter, with total product orders growing double-digits sequentially and more than 40 percent year-over-year,” said Juniper CEO Rami Rahim in a prepared statement on the company's Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings. “I am particularly pleased by the breadth of the momentum we are seeing, as we saw double-digit order growth in our enterprise and service provider verticals complement another quarter of triple-digit year-over-year growth in our cloud vertical, where we continue to benefit from these customers’ AI networking initiatives. I believe these results reflect the strong execution of our teams and the strength of our AI-native networking solutions, which continue to win across customer verticals and set us up well to deliver sustainable growth on a go-forward basis.”

Full-Year 2024 Financial Performance

Juniper's total revenue in 2024 was $5.07 billion, a 9 percent decline when compared to 2023. The company's Cloud business grew 6 percent, which Juniper executives attributed to AI investments and a recovery in general customer spending trends.

The company's Enterprise business declined 9 percent year-over-year compared to 2023 but remained Juniper's largest vertical in 2024. The Service Provider business declined 19 percent year-over-year as customers continued to digest previously placed orders through the course of the year, according to Juniper.

Data Center revenue increased 9 percent, Campus and Branch revenue declined 16 percent, and Wide Area Networking revenue was down 20 percent for the full-year 2024 when compared to 2023.

Services, however, achieved record revenue of $2.05 billion, growing 6 percent year-over-year. Total software and related services revenue was $1.32 billion, an increase of 8 percent year-over-year, and

accounted for 26 percent of total revenue.

Total Security revenue was $539 million, which was down 20 percent year-over-year.

Pending Deal On The Rocks

HPE first announced plans to acquire Juniper Networks in January 2024 in an all-cash transaction representing an equity value of approximately $14 billion. A year later and around the same time the deal was expected to close, the Department of Justice filed a complaint seeking to block the closing of the transaction.

The complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that the proposed megadeal between the two networking companies would eliminate “fierce head-to-head competition between the two companies, raise prices, reduce innovation, and diminish choice for scores of American businesses and institutions” in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act.

HPE and Juniper last month swiftly fired back at the Department of Justice, calling the lawsuit "fundamentally flawed."

"Juniper Networks and HPE will vigorously defend the transaction and remain fully committed to completing it," read a CFO commentary on the company's Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings report.