Juniper's Q2, outlook disappoint amid mixed economic signals

Juniper on Tuesday reported disappointing second quarter results and cited "mixed signals in the macro economy" as a problem.

The comapny reported second quarter earnings of $115.6 million, or 21 cents a share, on revenue of $1.12 billion, up 15 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 31 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 33 cents a share on revenue of $1.15 billion.

As for the outlook, Juniper also fell short. The company projected third quarter revenue of $1.07 billion to $1.12 billion with non-GAAP earnings of 26 cents a share to 30 cents a share.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of 38 cents a share on revenue of $1.22 billion.

CFO Robyn Denholm said that the company "saw some moderation in certain areas of the business." Meanwhile, CEO Kevin Johnson cited "mixed signals in the macro economy."

On a conference call, Johnson said:

In early June I spoke in an investor conference is focused on macro signals we were seeing in the market. With continued use of coverage topics including the sovereign debt situation Europe, rising at a point in US opposite consumer confidence, the impact of the disaster in Japan, and lower GDP expectations in many parts of the world, it is evident that people are trying to digest the macro economic signals and understand what impact they are having on the buying patterns of customers these macro signals don't change the long-term demand equation for networking. The market trends of mobile Internet and cloud computing are strong and continue to drive demand. On a global basis, more people and businesses are connecting to the network and consuming more digital content.

But there are issues ahead. Johnson said top service providers are cutting capital spending. The U.S. government and the enterprise are paring back spending. And Japan is slow to rebound for Juniper.

Juniper's earnings are likely to be more bad news for rival Cisco, which has been cutting its costs.