SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) _ Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter profit of $30.8 million.

On a per-share basis, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said it had profit of 9 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 55 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 54 cents per share.

The computer network equipment maker posted revenue of $1.22 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.19 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $257.8 million, or 77 cents per share. Revenue was nearly unchanged at $4.45 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Juniper expects its per-share earnings to range from 20 cents to 30 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1 billion to $1.11 billion for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $1.04 billion.

Juniper shares have increased 16% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen almost 1%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $26.11, a climb of 12% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on JNPR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/JNPR

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