Juniper: What Recession?

8:40 AM -- During the Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) analyst conference yesterday, CEO Scott Kriens said his company isn't seeing any slowdown due to the general economy.

That might have some investors breathing a sigh of relief, considering Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) had recently talked about the economy tripping up its business. (See Cisco Sounds Warning Bells.)

But Kriens also said his company isn't the best indicator of economic slowdowns. He'd said something similar when asked about the economy during Juniper's most recent earnings call: "We're certainly not insulated from market pullbacks and the rest of that, but we probably won't see it first."

That's because Juniper's work involves projects that are considered vital -- the kinds of work that won't be cut first if the economy worsens. Keep in mind that on the enterprise side, Juniper prides itself on sticking to high-end networks and "super data centers," to borrow a phrase CTO Pradeep Sindhu used yesterday.

So, a recession could still have an effect on Juniper, only delayed. You'd get a warning bell before getting pushed out of the plane.

It's nice Juniper isn't seeing any recessionary effects, but as Kriens admits, it's not much of a sign.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading