The earnings crunch continues to roll along, and here are a some highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) beat expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) beat estimates by a penny and offered a poor outlook.
• American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) delivered a positive surprise, with profits up 10%.
• Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) beat estimates, but revenue was flat.
• Anheuser-Busch Cos. (NYSE: BUD) beat expectations on strength of international sales and partner brands.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) blew past expectations. See our conference call live blog.
• Avery Dennison Corp.'s (NYSE: AVY) net sales up, EPS down, both due to the Paxar acquisition.
• Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) beat expectations, but wariness about its growth potential lingers.
• Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) beat expectations but lowered its guidance.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) beat expectations on the strength of Plavix sales.
• CNH Global's (NYSE: CNH) profit nearly doubled, beating estimates by 15%.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) beat estimates by a penny, but offered a conservative outlook for the holidays.
• Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) met EPS expectations but cut its cash flow forecast.
• Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) reported a $1.2 billion loss, but predicts a profit in the next quarter.

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) is sinking after the company's earnings release yesterday evening. JNPR reported a 46% jump in quarterly profit, but only beat EPS estimates by a penny, far less than what many optimistic investors, who drove the stock up 3.5% yesterday prior to the earnings release, had expected. A Morgan Keegan analyst cautioned that Q3 expenses grew too much, and there is some worry that the company's expenses aren't under sufficient control. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on JNPR.

The stock has climbed steadily over the past seven months, reaching a 52-week high of $37.95 earlier this month. This morning, JNPR opened at $35.17. So far today the stock has hit a low of $33.43 and a high of $35.17. As of 10:40, JNPR is trading at $33.95, down $3.19 (-8.6%). The chart for JNPR looks bullish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bear-call credit spread above the $40 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.7% return in two months as long as JNPR is below $40 at December expiration. Juniper would have to rise by more than 17% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

Whether it's over the Internet, or through the office network, getting the right computer signal to the right place is a matter most of us liken to magic. One of the world's best known performers of such legerdemain is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR) is engaged in the design, development and sale of Internet Protocol routers. These enable service providers and other network-intensive businesses to support and deliver services and applications on an integrated network. Other offerings include network traffic management software, virtual private network appliances, application acceleration platforms and firewall devices. Customers include wireline, wireless, and cable operators; Internet content providers; general businesses; and public agencies. McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) are among the firm's enterprise customers. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) are competitors.

The company pleased investors last week, when it reported Q2 EPS of 20 cents and revenues of $664.9 million. Analysts had been expecting 20 cents and $649.5 million. Management also guided Q3 EPS to 21 cents (21 cent consensus), Q3 revenues to $695-715 million ($674.56M consensus), FY07 EPS to 82-83 cents (81 cent consensus) and FY07 revenues to $2.73-$2.76 billion ($2.67B consensus).

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) and Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR) were today's most notable downgrades:

• Kohl's was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W Baird due to difficult comps, less benefit from key 2006 drivers and warmer weather.
  
• Juniper Networks was downgraded to Sector Performer from Sector Outperformer at CIBC World Markets as there is limited share upside due to competition from the Redback Networks (NASDAQ:RBAK) /Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) combination and a reduced possibility of an acquisition premium.
  

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Panacos Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PANC) was downgraded at Bear Stearns, Think Equities, RBC Capital Markets, Leerink Swann and Caris & Co. after the company released disappointing Phase II Bevirmat data.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).