- Juniper's (JNPR -9.8%) soft Q3 guidance, along with its related commentary on U.S. telco demand, is taking a toll on fellow telecom equipment suppliers Cisco (CSCO -1.2%), Ciena (CIEN -3.2%), Cyan (CYNI -2.5%), Zhone (ZHNE -6.5%) Ruckus (RKUS -1.6%), and Sonus (SONS -3.8%).
- Optical component vendors JDS Uniphase (JDSU -2.9%) and Finisar (FNSR -2%) are also off, as are several chipmakers (previous) with heavy networking/telecom exposure.
- On its CC (transcript), Juniper stated "market dynamics including M&A activity" are affecting the "sequencing and timing" of U.S. carrier projects. Jefferies reported in June AT&T has significantly cut its wireline capex in the wake of the DirecTV deal.
- There has been speculation AT&T is keeping a lid on wireline capex ahead of the full rollout of its ambitious Domain 2.0 initiative, which will feature the launch of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) platforms.
- Juniper insists it remains well-positioned with the aforementioned U.S. carriers, and that it has "major design wins" for next-gen projects. The company adds demand remains healthy with U.S. federal, cable, and Internet clients.
- The company's router revenue rose 7% Y/Y in Q2 to $617.8M, and its switch revenue rose 25% to $199.8M. Security product revenue fell 8% to $111.6M. The Junos Pulse VPN software ops (about to be sold for $250M) contributed $31.4M in revenue ($15.9M product, $15.5M service).