Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) Slides on Lower 1Q Preliminary Earnings

Shares of Sunnyvale, California, based Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) fell on Tuesday, against the backdrop of a higher day in stocks overall. Juniper's stock closed down 7.35%, falling $1.83 per share, to close at $23.06, on volume of 23,681,938 shares. Late Monday the company announced preliminary results for the first quarter that now indicate lower earnings than were provided by prior guidance. Meanwhile, several investment banks lowered their target prices for the stock.

Founded in 1996, Juniper Networks, Inc. designs, develops and sells products and services that provide customers with network infrastructure that creates responsive and trusted environments for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. The company provides a portfolio of products that includes routing, switching, security, application acceleration and identity policy and control. The company offers automated, scalable and secure networks to its customers. Juniper’s stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

Juniper issued certain preliminary estimated financial results for the company's fiscal first-quarter that ended March 31, 2016. Those estimates came in below previous guidance, sending the company's stock down. The company attributes the lower results to weaker than anticipated demand from Enterprise and timing of deployments of certain U.S. and EMEA Tier 1 Telecoms.

Revenue for the first quarter, originally estimated to be between $1.15 billion and $1.19 billion, is now estimated to come in at between $1.09 billion and $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, non-GAAP net income per diluted share is projected at between $0.35 and $0.37, considerably below the previous guidance of between $0.42 and $0.46 per diluted share.

In addition, three investment banks lowered their stock price targets on the company, including FBN Securities, which dropped Juniper's stock target from $27 to $25. Meanwhile, RBC Capital lowered its target price from $26 to $24, while analysts at Robert W. Baird cut the target price from $25 to $24.

"Although we expect results to be lower than our initial guidance for the first quarter, we remain constructive on fiscal 2016 and expect growth from new products to contribute to our top line, coupled with our ongoing focus on cost discipline to drive non-GAAP operating margin expansion for the full year," reported Juniper Networks chief executive officer, Rami Rahim.

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