Calls of Note Part 1

JMP Securities is maintaining Market Outperform rating and $22 price target on Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR) in the wake of learning about the company's expanding role in Verizon's managed service offering. Contacts close to Verizon indicate that the service provider is preparing to make a major push to expand its managed WAN service offerings throughout 2007. With integration of Verizon and the former MCI largely complete, firm's checks indicate that Verizon is about to step up its presence in the enterprise managed services market.

It appears that Verizon selected Juniper for its line of SSG (Secure Services Gateway) products. The SSG combines Juniper's leading security solutions with an enterprise router. They have also learned that Verizon is eager to begin evaluating Juniper's yet to be released "branch office in a box" solution. This solution combines enterprise routing, security, and WAN Optimization functions into a single integrated box.

Verizon win should result in increased enterprise awareness and better service provider traction. While managed service CPE equipment is generally owned by the service provider, it resides at a customer's site. This creates an opportunity for Juniper to introduce itself to enterprises, many of which are not aware of Juniper's growing enterprise product line. Firm believes that many enterprises will think "If Juniper's products are good enough for Verizon, they are good enough for us", resulting in awareness growth for Juniper.

Notablecalls: Interesting comments by JMP. Think the revenue impact isn't that big but I suspect the note is cool enough to generate some buy interest.