Juniper beats quarterly estimates on networking gear demand

Juniper Networks, which is being bought by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday, aided by demand for its networking equipment.

Sunnyvale, California-based Juniper is benefiting from strong demand from cloud computing firms as they invest heavily to bolster AI infrastructure.

For the third quarter, the company reported revenue of $1.33 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG data.

“We saw particularly robust orders from our cloud customers during Q3 in support of front-end and back-end AI networking initiatives,” Chief Executive Rami Rahim said in a statement.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 48 cents per share in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with estimates of 44 cents per share.

In January, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it would acquire Juniper for about $14 billion, and last month the AI server maker announced a $1.35 billion mandatory convertible preferred stock offering to fund its acquisition.

Juniper said on Thursday it would not provide annual forecast owing to the takeover, which is expected to close by late 2024 or early 2025.