SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 9, 2012 — Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings), the industry leader in network innovation, today provided preliminary results for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Financial results for the fourth quarter of 2011, which are based on preliminary estimates and subject to change, are now expected to be below the company’s outlook issued on October 24, 2011.
Revenue is now expected to be in the range of $1,110 to $1,120 million, compared to the company’s prior expectation of $1,160 to $1,220 million. Non-GAAP EPS is now expected to be in the range of $0.26 to $0.28 per diluted share, compared to the company’s prior expectation of $0.32 to $0.36. Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be below the company’s prior outlook of 21% to 23% due to lower than expected Non-GAAP gross margins which were impacted by reduced revenue.
Although the company’s results are not yet finalized, fourth quarter performance is below the company’s previous outlook primarily due to weaker than expected router demand from service providers. While this was not limited to any single geography, a significant portion of the impact was from US service providers. In addition, product book-to-bill was approximately 1.
“2011 was a record year of revenue for Juniper, even though our fourth quarter revenue was weaker than expected due to service provider demand,” said Kevin Johnson, chief executive officer of Juniper Networks. “We remain committed to our strategy of innovation in high-performance networking as we continue to manage costs and drive excellence in execution.”
The above information is preliminary and subject to Juniper Networks normal quarter-end accounting review and a full fiscal year audit by the company’s independent registered public accounting firm. As such, corresponding GAAP financial information is not yet available, but will be included when the company releases its financial results for Q4 2011.
The company will provide full preliminary Q4 2011 financial results and commentary about these results on January 26, 2012 after the close of the market with a conference call to be held at 2:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) and also to be broadcast live over the Internet at: http://www.juniper.net/company/investor/conferencecall.html.
To participate via telephone, in the U.S. the toll free dial-in number is 877-407-8033; outside of the U.S. dial +1-201-689-8033. Please call ten minutes prior to the scheduled conference call start time. The webcast replay of the conference call will be archived on the Juniper Networks website until March 15, 2012.
About Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks is in the business of network innovation. From devices to data centers, from consumers to cloud providers, Juniper Networks delivers the software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net).
Juniper Networks and Junos are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The Juniper Networks and Junos logos are trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Statements in this release concerning Juniper Networks’ business outlook, economic and market outlook, future financial and operating results, and overall future prospects are forward-looking statements that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Actual results or events could differ materially from those anticipated in those forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including: general economic conditions globally or regionally; business and economic conditions in the networking industry; changes in overall technology spending; the network capacity requirements of communication service providers; contractual terms that may result in the deferral of revenue; increases in and the effect of competition; the timing of orders and their fulfillment; manufacturing and supply chain constraints; ability to establish and maintain relationships with distributors, resellers and other partners; variations in the expected mix of products sold; changes in customer mix; changes in geography mix; customer and industry analyst perceptions of Juniper Networks and its technology, products and future prospects; delays in scheduled product availability; market acceptance of Juniper Networks products and services; rapid technological and market change; adoption of regulations or standards affecting Juniper Networks products, services or the networking industry; the ability to successfully acquire, integrate and manage businesses and technologies; product defects, returns or vulnerabilities; the ability to recruit and retain key personnel; significant effects of tax legislation and judicial or administrative interpretation of tax regulations; currency fluctuations; litigation; and other factors listed in Juniper Networks’ most recent report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The preliminary financial information provided in this press release is subject to Juniper Networks normal quarter-end accounting review and a full fiscal year audit by the company’s independent registered public accounting firm. All statements made in this press release are made only as of the date set forth at the beginning of this release. Juniper Networks undertakes no obligation to update the information in this release in the event facts or circumstances subsequently change after the date of the release.
Juniper Networks believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial information provides important supplemental information to management and investors regarding financial and business trends relating to the company’s financial condition and results of operations. For further information regarding why Juniper Networks believes that these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to investors, the specific manner in which management uses these measures, and some of the limitations associated with the use of these measures, please refer to the discussion below.
Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This press release contains the following non-GAAP financial measures: GAAP Earnings Per Share (EPS), operating margin and gross margins. These measures are not presented in accordance with, nor are they a substitute for U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. In addition, these measures may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes. The non-GAAP financial measures used in this press release should not be considered in isolation from financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures as an analytical tool. In particular, many of the adjustments to our GAAP financial measures reflect the exclusion of items that are recurring and will be reflected in our financial results for the foreseeable future.
We utilize a number of different financial measures, both GAAP and non-GAAP, in analyzing and assessing the overall performance of our business, in making operating decisions, forecasting and planning for future periods, and determining payments under compensation programs. We consider the use of non-GAAP measures to be helpful in assessing the performance of the continuing operation of our business. By continuing operations we mean the ongoing revenue and expenses of the business excluding certain items that render comparisons with prior periods or analysis of on-going operating trends more difficult, such as expenses not directly related to the actual cash costs of development, sale, delivery or support of our products and services, or expenses that are reflected in periods unrelated to when the actual amounts were incurred or paid. Consistent with this approach, we believe that disclosing non-GAAP financial measures to the readers of our financial statements provides such readers with useful supplemental data that, while not a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, allows for greater transparency in the review of our financial and operational performance. In addition, we have historically reported non-GAAP results to the investment community and believe that continuing to provide non-GAAP measures provides investors with a tool for comparing results over time. In assessing the performance of our business, we have excluded items in the following three general categories, each of which are described below: Share-Based Compensation Related Items, Acquisition-Related Charges, and Other Items.
Share-Based Compensation Related Items. We provide non-GAAP information relative to our expense for share-based compensation and related payroll tax. We began to include share-based compensation expense in our GAAP financial measures in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 718, Compensation – Stock Compensation (“FASB ASC Topic 718”), in January 2006. Because of varying available valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types, which affect the calculations of share-based compensation, we believe that the exclusion of share-based compensation allows for more accurate comparisons of our operating results to our peer companies. Further, we believe that excluding share-based compensation expense allows for a more accurate comparison of our financial results to previous periods during which our equity-based awards were not required to be reflected in our income statement. Share-based compensation is very different from other forms of compensation. A cash salary or bonus has a fixed and unvarying cash cost. For example, the expense associated with a $10,000 bonus is equal to exactly $10,000 in cash regardless of when it is awarded and who it is awarded by. In contrast, the expense associated with an award of an option for 1,000 shares of stock is unrelated to the amount of compensation ultimately received by the employee; and the cost to the company is based on a share-based compensation valuation methodology and underlying assumptions that may vary over time and that does not reflect any cash expenditure by the company because no cash is expended. Furthermore, the expense associated with granting an employee an option is spread over multiple years unlike other compensation expenses which are more proximate to the time of award or payment. For example, we may be recognizing expense in a year where the stock option is significantly underwater and is not going to be exercised or generate any compensation for the employee. The expense associated with an award of an option for 1,000 shares of stock by us in one quarter may have a very different expense than an award of an identical number of shares in a different quarter. Finally, the expense recognized by us for such an option may be very different than the expense to other companies for awarding a comparable option, which makes it difficult to assess our operating performance relative to our competitors. Similar to share-based compensation, payroll tax on stock option exercises is dependent on our stock price and the timing and exercise by employees of our share-based compensation, over which our management has little control, and as such does not correlate to the operation of our business. Because of these unique characteristics of share-based compensation and the related payroll tax, management excludes these expenses when analyzing the organization’s business performance. We also believe that presentation of such non-GAAP information is important to enable readers of our financial statements to compare current period results with periods prior to the adoption of FASB ASC Topic 718.
Acquisition-Related Charges. We exclude certain expense items resulting from acquisitions including the following, when applicable: (i) amortization of purchased intangible assets associated with our acquisitions; (ii) compensation related to acquisitions; and (iii) acquisition-related charges. The amortization of purchased intangible assets associated with our acquisitions results in our recording expenses in our GAAP financial statements that were already expensed by the acquired company before the acquisition and for which we have not expended cash. Moreover, had we internally developed the products acquired, the amortization of intangible assets, and the expenses of uncompleted research and development would have been expensed in prior periods. Accordingly, we analyze the performance of our operations in each period without regard to such expenses. In addition, acquisitions result in non-continuing operating expenses, which would not otherwise have been incurred by us in the normal course of our business operations. For example, we have incurred deferred compensation charges related to assumed options and transition and integration costs such as retention bonuses and acquisition-related milestone payments to acquired employees. We believe that providing non-GAAP information for acquisition-related expense items in addition to the corresponding GAAP information allows the users of our financial statements to better review and understand the historic and current results of our continuing operations, and also facilitates comparisons to less acquisitive peer companies.
Other Items. We exclude certain other items that are the result of either unique or unplanned events including the following, when applicable: (i) restructuring and related costs; (ii) impairment charges; (iii) gain or loss on legal settlement, net of related transaction costs; (iv) retroactive impacts of certain tax settlements; (v) significant effects of tax legislation and judicial or administrative interpretation of tax regulations; (vi) gain or loss on equity investments; and (vii) the income tax effect on our financial statements of excluding items related to our non-GAAP financial measures. It is difficult to estimate the amount or timing of these items in advance. Restructuring and impairment charges result from events, which arise from unforeseen circumstances, which often occur outside of the ordinary course of continuing operations. Although these events are reflected in our GAAP financials, these unique transactions may limit the comparability of our on-going operations with prior and future periods. In the case of legal settlements, these gains or losses are recorded in the period in which the matter is concluded or resolved even though the subject matter of the underlying dispute may relate to multiple or different periods. As such, we believe that these expenses do not accurately reflect the underlying performance of our continuing operations for the period in which they are incurred. Similarly, the retroactive impacts of certain tax settlements and significant effects of retroactive tax legislation are unique events that occur in periods that are generally unrelated to the level of business activity to which such settlement or legislation applies. We believe this limits comparability with prior periods and that these expenses do not accurately reflect the underlying performance of our continuing business operations for the period in which they are incurred. Whether we realize gains or losses on equity investments is based primarily on the performance and market value of those independent companies. Accordingly, we believe that these gains and losses do not reflect the underlying performance of our continuing operations. We also believe providing financial information with and without the income tax effect of excluding items related to our non-GAAP financial measures provide our management and users of the financial statements with better clarity regarding the on-going performance and future liquidity of our business. Because of these factors, we assess our operating performance both with these amounts included and excluded, and by providing this information, we believe the users of our financial statements are better able to understand the financial results of what we consider our continuing operations.
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