Earnings Roundup: Juniper, Lucent, Check Point

Tuesday, July 19, was a busy earnings day for the networking and security sector as Juniper Networks, Lucent and Check Point joined tech industry leaders Intel and IBM, among others, in reporting their quarterly numbers.

Juniper’s earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 were $493.0 million, a 61 percent increase from the $306.9 million it posted for the same period last year. GAAP net income for the second quarter was $89.0 million (15 cents per share), compared with a GAAP net loss of $12.6 million (2 cents per share) in the second quarter of 2004. Non-GAAP net income was $104.3 million (18 cents per share), compared with non-GAAP net income of $42.7 million (8 cents per share) in the second quarter of 2004.

In a conference call with analysts and media, Juniper CEO Scott Kriens lauded his company’s execution during a very busy time. In the past year, Juniper has added roughly 2,000 people to its ranks and grown its channel business by 76 percent.

“We’ve been able to accomplish what we have because of our focus and execution,” he says. “I’m especially pleased with our network infrastructure results, and we’re continuing to increase our presence in the security space as the market embraces the comprehensiveness of our security portfolio.”

Check Point’s FY 2005 second-quarter earnings include revenue of $144.6 million, up 14 percent compared with $126.9 million in the second quarter of 2004. Net income was $78.0 million, an increase of 23 percent from last year.

The results prompted the company to increase its third-quarter revenue forecast from $140 million to $150 million, and its full-year EPS estimate to $1.23 to $1.28 from a previous forecast of $1.18 to $1.24. The company’s full-year revenue prediction stayed at the $585 million to $600 million it had predicted earlier, but company officials told analysts that they expect the second half of this year to be stronger than the first half.

In another conference call, Check Point CEO Gil Shwed credited the large deals the company signed, as well as the release of the NGX platform, as giving the company a bottom-line boost.

“Q2 marked a major milestone in Check Point’s history with the introduction of the NGX platform -- the industry’s only unified security architecture,” he says. “As IT security remains a global focus, Check Point NGX is resonating in the marketplace because it unifies broad, intelligent security and delivers cost savings, reduced complexity and deployment adaptability to businesses of all sizes.”

The results weren’t so encouraging for the long-struggling Lucent, which reported net income of $372 million, up from the company’s net income of $267 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2005, but down from its net income of $387 million in the year-ago quarter. Lucent had revenue of $2.34 billion in the quarter, the same as it posted in the second quarter, and up slightly from the $2.19 billion it posted in the year-ago quarter.