By Sabela Ojea

Juniper Networks is scheduled to report earnings for the fourth quarter after the market closes on Tuesday. Here's what you need to know:

PROFIT: The routers and switches equipment company is expected to post a net profit of $113.4 million, or 28 cents a share. This compares with a reported profit of $124.3 million, or 38 cents a share, for the year-ago period.

ADJUSTED EARNINGS: Stripping out one-time items, the company's earnings per share are expected to come in at 57 cents, according to FactSet.

REVENUE: Revenue is expected to rise to $1.39 billion, according to FactSet. This compares with reported revenue of $1.36 billion for the same period last year.

The stock has fallen 10% over the past three months.

WHAT TO WATCH:

--Look for comments around the pending $14 billion deal with Hewlett Packard Enterprise for the company to acquire Juniper. Last week, the Justice Department sued to block the deal, which would create a combined company to potentially rival Cisco Systems, the current leader in wireless networking for large companies. Regulators said the tie-up would significantly reduce competition.

--Investors will want to know how HPE and Juniper will challenge the DoJ's lawsuit. The companies say the DoJ's claim that the WLAN market is composed of three primary players is "disconnected from market realities." The company said it "will vigorously defend against the Department of Justice's overreaching interpretation of antitrust laws and will demonstrate how this transaction will provide customers with greater innovation and choice, positively change the dynamics in the networking market by enhancing competition, and strengthen the backbone of U.S. networking infrastructure."

--See what the companies have to say about demand and where product orders stood in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, Chief Executive Rami Rahim said Juniper saw particularly robust orders from its cloud customers in support of front-end and back-end AI networking initiatives.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2025 12:51 ET (17:51 GMT)

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