Networking equipment provider Juniper Networks disclosed its financial performance in the second quarter of this fiscal year, which was ahead of Wall Street’s consensus estimate.

The firm reported 19 cents a share, ahead of the15 to 17 cents guidance the company itself issued and considerably higher than analysts’ consensus forecast of 8 cents a share. Sales stood at $1.11 billion, again not falling short of Juniper’s own guidance of $1.03 to $1.06 billion while easily surpassing outside sources’ expectation of $1.05 billion.

The firm has seen a steady decline of its stock and financial results this year, but its Q2 numbers managed to restore some investor confidence and drive the shares up by 4.3 percent to $15.45 in after hours trading.

One of the reasons Juniper has been having a hard time this year is weakening demand, something that is affecting its competitors as well.

“Juniper’s earnings have declined for more than a year amid soft demand from several key customer groups,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “Like many of its peers, the maker of routers and switches has faced headwinds as some telecommunications companies–which typically account for more than half of its revenue–reduce their capital expenditures in response to economic uncertainty.”

Juniper is the second largest vendor in the networking industry, following Cisco. And the latter just announced that its cutting over 1,000 jobs because it’s struggling to deliver the results that are expected from it.

Broadcom is another big player in this market that held its earnings call this week, although it didn’t have to account for a decline in income or revenue.  The company has a much more diversified portfolio than its peers which includes a very strong presence in mobile, a segment that is seeing nothing but consistent growth.