Juniper’s growth in cloud provider customers coupled with an increase in switching products helped the company to beat fourth-quarter 2016 expectations.

For its fourth quarter 2016, Juniper's non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.66, beating $0.63 per diluted share predicted by Thompson Financial.

Juniper saw a 50 percent increase year-over-year in its number of cloud provider customers, which accounted for much of its routing and switching product revenue for the quarter. Half of its top 10 customers for the quarter were cloud providers, three were telecoms, and two were enterprises, according to the company’s 8-K filing from today.

Most notably, the company’s switching products pulled in $251 million in revenue for the quarter, up 19 percent year-over-year, and 13 percent compared to last quarter. Juniper’s QFX product family, its line of data center switches, appears to be taking off. The product line's revenue increased 90 percent year-over-year, Juniper officials said on its earnings call today.

Its routing product revenue saw a 1 percent increase year-over-year and 5 percent increase sequentially. Not much, but it’s worth noting that Juniper said its PTX router family had a record quarter in terms of revenue, however officials didn’t provide specifics.

However, Juniper’s security products didn't fare as well.  Security products brought in $81 million for its fourth quarter — down 30 percent from the same period last year and down 5 percent from its third-quarter 2016.  The company, along with others, has been experiencing a weak security market, but blames its outdated security product line, Juniper CFO Ken Miller said on the company’s earnings call.

For its fourth-quarter 2016, the company reported revenues over $1.3 billion, a 5 percent increase from this period last year and an 8 percent increase sequentially. Its GAAP net income was $194 million, flat year-over-year, and a 15 percent increase from its third-quarter 2016. Non-GAAP net income was $254.3 million, a 3 percent increase year-over-year, and a 15 percent increase sequentially.

However, Juniper's first quarter 2017 guidance shows its non-GAAP net income per diluted share to be in the range of $0.38 to $0.44 — significantly lower than this quarter's. Juniper’s stock was down more than 7 percent in after-hours trading yesterday.