Networking firm Juniper Networks’ Q2 profit more than doubled for the quarter as the company forecasted Q3 revenue and profit below analysts’ expectations.
The Sunnyvale-based company, whose customers include Verizon and AT&T, said net profits for the second quarter ending June 30 hit $221.1m from $97m a year ago, as sales rose 7% to $1.23bn.
Growth was partly driven by a gain from a legal settlement as well as product and services revenues.
Juniper, which announced plans to sell its mobile security unit, Junos Pulse, to private equity firm Siris Capital for $250m, gave a forecast for Q3 revenue and profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates.
Analysts on average had expected a Q3 profit of 44 cents per share on revenue of $1.26bn, according to data compile by Thompson Reuters.
But the company, which makes infrastructure for telecommunications networks, said it expects an adjusted profit between 35 cents and 40 cents a share on revenue of $1.15bm to $1.2bn.
Shaygan Kheradpir, CEO of Juniper, who took the helm in January this year, was quoted by Reuters as saying merger activity undertaken by some US-based service providers to which Juniper sells its network equipment led to delays of large projects, impeding on sales for the second half of the year.
"The impact is going to be more on our routing, rather than switching and security," he said.
He added that markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa are showing positive momentum as customers continue to build out network capacity.
