Juniper Networks Inc. made surprising gains today, its stock up almost 5% in extended trading despite reporting third-quarter financial results only in line with analysts’ expectations.

The company reported a profit before certain costs such as stock compensation of 46 cents per share on revenue $1.18 billion for the quarter, up 4% from the same period a year ago. That was pretty much what Wall Street was expecting, with analysts also calling for a profit of 46 cents per share on slightly higher sales of $1.2 billion.

It may well be that investors were more encouraged by Juniper’s cost management, as the company delivered net income of $152 million, up 5% from a year ago.

Juniper Networks Chief Executive Rami Rahim (pictured) noted it was the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth and the second quarter in a row where it delivered what he called “exceptional” growth.

“Our strategy is working and the investments we have made both in our customer solutions and our sales organization are enabling us to capitalize on the strong demand across each of our end markets,” Rahim said. “Based on the momentum we are seeing, I am confident in our ability to not only grow our business in the December quarter, but also to do so again during the upcoming year.”

Juniper sells a mix of networking hardware and software products to enterprises, as well as security tools.

Throughout the year, the company’s executives have warned investors that the company’s business might be hurt by ongoing supply chain issues from the coronavirus pandemic. In April, Juniper Chief Financial Officer Ken Miller said the company was experiencing supply constraints, resulting in extended lead times, and in July he reiterated the message, saying the conditions will likely persist for the next few quarters.

Today, though, Miller sounded a more optimistic note, saying the company had executed extremely well despite the challenging supply environment, demonstrating strong financial management throughout the quarter.

“Our strong order momentum, record backlog, and actions to strengthen our supply chain provide confidence in our future growth prospects and our ability to deliver improved profitability in 2022 and beyond,” Miller added.

In August, Juniper boosted its security portfolio with the release of a new Cloud Workload Protection offering that can defend apps running in the cloud or on-premises from exploit-based attacks as they happen. The following month, it announced a new networking switch – the QFX5700 Series – that it claims is the most flexible midsized switch of its kind. Juniper said at the time that the switch will help it to deliver on its long-term vision of “experience-first networking,” which is an effort aimed at reimagining the data center with agile, intent-based operations.

Looking to the next quarter, Juniper said it’s expecting fourth-quarter earnings of 53 cents per share on revenue of $1.26 billion. Wall Street is also looking for earnings of 53 cents on slightly higher revenue of $1.27 billion.

Photo: SiliconANGLE