Tag Archives: csco

Juniper’s Q1 Miss Drags Down Networking Stocks; Chips Fall Too

When enterprise clients slow down purchases, and Internet service providers delay capital expenditures, Juniper Networks ( JNPR ) has a problem. The top computer-networking gear maker not named Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) pre-announced just such a first-quarter situation after the market close Monday, sending networking stocks lower Tuesday. Juniper stock was down more than 9% in morning trading in the stock market today , below 23, as at least three investment banks lowered their price target. Cisco stock was down 1%, near 27. The IBD Computer-Networking industry group was down 1.4%. Shares of  Arista Networks ( ANET ) and rival Brocade Communications Systems ( BRCD ) were each down 2%. Chips stocks weren’t faring much better. IBD’s Electronics-Semiconductor Manufacturing industry group was down 1% and had been down more than 4%, while the Electronics-Semiconductor Fabless group also was down 1%. Microsemi ( MSCC ) was down nearly 3%,  MaxLinear ( MXL ) 1%, and Inphi ( IPHI ) was weaker by more than 1% — though all had been down more than 3% earlier. FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi dropped his price target for Juniper stock to 25 from 27 and maintained a sector perform rating. “The primary reasons for the weakness include weaker-than-anticipated demand from enterprise (customers) and the timing of deployments of certain U.S. and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Tier 1 telecoms,” Seyrafi wrote in a research note Tuesday. “It is somewhat disappointing to see the weakness in EMEA telecoms (which was the case in fiscal Q4 as well), especially considering that in Q4, JNPR’s service provider segment grew by a strong 25% year over year and that JNPR had an easy compare in the Q1 service provider segment (where revenue declined 8% year over year the year before).” Seyrafi noted that AT&T ( T ) expects to grow capital expenditures 6% to $22 billion this year, while Verizon ( VZ ) implied a 3% decline in capex to a range of $17.2 billion to $17.8 billion. “So U.S.-based service providers will likely not be driving much growth for communication equipment suppliers this year,” he said. Juniper Notes March Rebound “We do think that Juniper felt what Cisco (outperform-rated) noted in February, namely that some customers paused to digest what was happening following financial market turbulence at the beginning of the year,” Seyrafi wrote. “However, we do note that financial markets rebounded in March, and JNPR CEO Rami Rahim stated that the company remains constructive on fiscal 2016 as the company expects new products to add to growth while the company maintains ongoing focus on cost discipline.” Juniper said that it expects to report earnings per share minus items of 35 cents to 37 cents, down from its prior guidance of 42-46 cents. Wall Street had expected 43-44 cents, up 34% to 38% from Q1 2015. Juniper’s new midpoint, 36 cents, would be up 12%. Juniper expects Q1 revenue of $1.09 billion to $1.10 billion, down from its prior guidance of $1.15 billion to $1.19 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected $1.16 billion, up 8.4%. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper is set to release full Q1 results after the close April 28. William Blair analyst Jason Ader maintained his outperform rating on Juniper stock but “modestly lowered” full-year estimates for 2016 and 2017. Analyst Alex Henderson at Needham reiterated his hold rating and said that he’s “firmly on the sidelines,” as he too trimmed estimates. “While we see Juniper as one of the weaker companies in our coverage, there could be read-throughs to other names such as Cisco, F5 Networks ( FFIV ) and Viavi ( VIAV ),” Henderson said in a Tuesday research note. “We think Arista and Gigamon ( GIMO ) are likely to be able to power through the choppy environment. Given the magnitude of the (Juniper) top-line miss, we think estimates for Q2 will have to be ratcheted back as well.” F5 stock was down 2% Tuesday morning, while Gigamon was down 1% and Viavi Solutions off 1.5%.

Cisco Targets Cybersecurity For Productivity, Not Just Defense

Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) wants organizational leaders to understand that improving their competitive advantage, not just responding to fear, should inspire their cybersecurity strategy. Fearful tales, however, are hard to ignore. One recent example: Virtually all IT systems of the largest civilian hospital chain in the nation’s capital, including the MedConnect electronic health records system installed by Cerner ( CERN ), were shut down to prevent the spread of a computer virus in late March. Baltimore-based MedStar Health on March 30 called it a “despicable attack.” The disruption affected thousands of employees and many more patients, and restoration of the systems took days. “Within 48 hours of the malware penetration,” the three main clinical systems were “moving to full restoration,” said MedStar. A Cerner spokeswoman told IBD: “We continue to work closely with our client (MedStar) as the broader IT framework is brought back online.” But a week later, MedStar was still working on it: “Our partner Symantec ( SYMC ) … has been on the ground from the start of the situation and has been conducting a thorough forensic analysis,” MedStar said in an update last week, acknowledging it “has worked closely with the FBI throughout this situation.” The company again assured “that we have no evidence of any compromise of patient or associate data.” The Baltimore Sun reported the hospital’s hackers demanded ransom be paid in Bitcoin to unlock the hospital’s maliciously encrypted data. What a pain. What a danger. What a motivation for every organization to get its cybersecurity in order, as if another example were needed. “We’re very familiar with it,” James Mobley, a Cisco security services vice president, told IBD in an interview last week, acknowledging MedStar is a Cisco client. Cisco: Security-Led Firms More Prepared For Cloud, IoT Cisco, the No. 1 maker of computer networking gear and with a growing business in security, plans early next month to release a security survey of business executives. The company says productivity, growth and competitive advantage ought to be motivating cybersecurity decisions, not just fear. Its report, originally set for release early Tuesday, is titled “Nearly One-Third of Businesses View Cybersecurity Primarily as a Growth Enabler.” Silicon Valley-based Cisco, which briefed IBD and other media on the report, found that only a bit more than 30% of 1,014 corporate directors, vice presidents and C-level executives surveyed online “view cybersecurity primarily as an enabler of growth tied to digitization. “Security-led digitizers feel more prepared than others to address cybersecurity challenges in three key digital technology areas: analytics, Internet of Things and cloud computing,” Cisco said. “As a result, these organizations are far more confident about incorporating digital technologies into their business processes and offerings. “In fact, 44% of executives surveyed consider cybersecurity to be a competitive advantage for their organizations.” Cisco said cybersecurity will drive about $7.6 trillion of digital value over the next decade, with $5.8 trillion resulting from “cybersecurity’s enablement of digital use cases that instigate innovation and growth.” Is this marketing pablum or a legitimate call to action? Cisco has been under pressure to grow as fast as some of the smaller networking and software security firms with which it competes or partners. In its fiscal 2015 ended July 25, Cisco’s overall revenue rose only 4% to $49.16 billion, but its security services sales alone grew 12% to $1.75 billion. Medical IT leader Cerner grew 2015 revenue 30% to $4.42 billion, in part by selling P2Sentinnel and P2Sentinel Security as a Service (P2SaaS) products as a “security, auditing and compliance solution for tracking end-user access to confidential patient data in Mellennium, as well as other non-Cerner clinical solutions and infrastructure systems.” Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), which specializes in security software, grew sales 55% last year. Rival Check Point Software ( CHKP ) saw revenue rise 9%. Symantec, MedStar’s prime cybersecurity contractor, reported pro forma revenue fell 6.3% year over year for its fiscal Q3 ended Jan. 1, adjusting for the sale of its Veritas business. Cisco’s survey data could serve as grist for its hungry marketing-sales machine, but it also provides a heads-up to companies that there’s more to cybersecurity than preventing hacker disruption. When a company is confident it can prevent disruption, this enables minds to focus on everything else. “It’s critically important that we stop thinking about security as a defense-centric approach that is sold by fear, uncertainty and doubt,” Mike Dahn, head of data security for payments firm Square ( SQ ), said in Cisco’s survey results press release. “We need to start thinking about security as an enablement of innovation that actually helps the business go forward.” Cisco stock touched a nearly one-year low of 22.46 in early February, but it has been on an upswing recently. Cisco closed Monday at 27.62, down a fraction. In the meantime, cybersecurity continues to be top of mind. By executive order, the U.S. Commerce Department will host its first Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity meeting on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Ciena Gets Buy Rating Affirmation After Alliance Gets A Buyer

Competing in the shadow of Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) can be a tough place for Ciena ( CIEN ), the specialty fiber optics developer for telecom and cable service providers: Perform inadequately and you’re dust. Perform well and get picked off. In fact, perform so-so and get picked off, like Alliance Fiber Optic Products ( AFOP ) getting bought out by Corning ( GLW ) in a $305 million deal disclosed Thursday. “Ciena is quick to recognize its financial performance has fallen short of investor hopes, and its own,” said Nomura analyst Jeffrey Kvaal in a research note Friday, after spending time with Ciena Chief Technology Officer Steve Alexander and investor relations executive Gregg Lampf. Ciena is “taking steps to improve financial performance,” Kvaal said. “Ciena has suffered from high investor expectations ( Verizon ( VZ ) metro timing), macro factors (foreign exchange, mergers), and its own execution. To address these issues, Ciena has cleaned up its execution, widened the guidance range and added conservatism to its European guidance. “We would have preferred the guidance conservatism to apply more broadly. We believe many investors will only consider the stock following several quarters of outperformance, despite Ciena’s steady annual progress.” With such ambivalence, Kvaal reaffirmed Nomura’s buy rating and 24 price target on Ciena stock, which was up 2.5%, above 18, in afternoon trading in the stock market today . That’s still 32% below a nearly 16-month high of 26.50 touched last July. Shares fell below their 50-day moving average this week. Alliance Fiber Optic stock was up 19% Friday afternoon, at a six-month high near 18.50. That’s the price Corning agreed to pay for Alliance, an agreement  disclosed after Thursday’s market close. Corning was down a fraction Friday afternoon, near 20.50, near a nine-month high at 21.07 reached March 30. Shares of networking king Cisco were up a fraction, near 28. Alliance and Corning both earn middling 63 IBD Composite Ratings, while Ciena has an 81 CR. Composite Ratings rank companies by major metrics such as sales and earnings growth over the past 12 months. “Beneath the headlines,” Nomura’s Kvaal said, Ciena offers “a solid growth story with rising margins.” Kvaal notes that Ciena works in the crosstown and long-haul markets beyond 50 miles, not inside the data center or campus markets. “It thus does not see the intra-data-center strength the component vendors are seeing and is not affected by Microsoft ’s ( MFST ) Colorz launch (announced in March). ” For Ciena’s fiscal Q1, ended Jan. 31, the company earned 18 cents per share minus items, up 50% from the year-earlier quarter, beating analysts’ 14-cent estimate. Revenue rose 8% to $573 million but missed analysts’ $576 million expectation. For Q2, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect EPS ex items to fall 23% to 27 cents, on revenue up 1.5% to $631 million.