GAAP net income was $566.9 million, an increase of 85% year-over-year, resulting in diluted earnings per share of $1.60, an increase of 100% year-over-year. The change in GAAP net income was primarily due to a lower effective tax rate in fiscal year 2018.
Non-GAAP net income was $666.4 million, a decrease of 18% year-over-year, resulting innon-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.88, a decrease of 11% year-over-year.
The reconciliation between GAAP andnon-GAAP results of operations is provided in a table immediately following the Preliminary Net Revenues by Geographic Region table below.
“We are disappointed by our Q4 sales, as continued weakness with several of our cloud and service provider customers more than offset solid momentum in our enterprise business,” said Rami Rahim, chief executive officer, Juniper Networks. “We are taking actions to drive improved sales execution and capitalize on the attractive end market opportunities that we expect to emerge in 2019. We remain confident in our strategy and believe we have the products needed to win in the market.”
“We demonstrated strong financial management during the December quarter asnon-GAAP gross margin andnon-GAAP earnings per share came in toward thehigh-end of our guidance andnon-GAAP operating expenses were below thelow-end of our guidance,” said Ken Miller, chief financial officer, Juniper Networks. “Given our confidence in our long-term financial model and commitment to creating shareholder value, we plan to enter into a $300 million accelerated share repurchase program and increase our quarterly dividend by approximately 6% to $0.19 per share.”
Balance Sheet and Other Financial Results
Total cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of December 31, 2018 were $3,758.1 million, compared to $4,021.0 million as of December 31, 2017, and $3,648.0 million as of September 30, 2018.
Net cash flows provided by operations for the fourth quarter of 2018 was $212.4 million, compared to $212.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, and $207.3 million in the third quarter of 2018.
Days sales outstanding in accounts receivable, or “DSO,” was 58 days in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to 62 days in the fourth quarter of 2017, and 49 days in the third quarter of 2018.
Capital expenditures were $36.5 million, and depreciation and amortization expense was $52.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2018.
Outlook
These metrics are provided on anon-GAAP basis, except for revenue and share count.Non-GAAP earnings per share is on a fully diluted basis. The outlook assumes that the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to other currencies will remain relatively stable at current levels.
Our Q1 revenue outlook reflects continued weakness with our Cloud customers. In addition, we are transitioning ourgo-to-market organization to enable our strategy. While we are confident these changes will lead to long-term growth, this may result in short-term challenges. We have also factored in the partial US Federal government shutdown and geopolitical uncertainty which we believe could adversely impact our business in the early part of 2019. These factors lead us to expect below normal seasonality for the first quarter.
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