Juniper slides on downgrade

Shares of Juniper Networks took a plunge yesterday on a downgrade from ABN Amro, which said the company would not make its first quarter numbers.

Juniper’s current guidance for first-quarter revenue is $150 million to $155 million. Amro predicts that the company will fall far short of that, posting $110 million. In addition, Amro forecasts Juniper will miss its revenue target of $305 million to $315 million for the second half of 2002, instead estimating the router maker will post $250 million in revenue.

The news comes on top of recent investor speculation that the company is left with a large chunk of its business to fill in the final two weeks of the quarter. At a recent Merrill Lynch investor conference, Juniper Chief Financial Officer Marcel Gani said the quarter would be back-end loaded.

If the company is counting on orders coming in at the last minute, it could be unpleasantly surprised, because some of Juniper’s large carrier customers such as Qwest and WorldCom recently cut their capital-expenditure budgets.

Shares of Juniper closed today at $11.42, down $1.54 from its closing price on Wednesday.

--Toby Weber, staff writer