Intact Investment Management Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Intact Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 72,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,123,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of JNPR. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 11,418.1% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,829,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,401,000 after purchasing an additional 2,804,509 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 276.7% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,257,447 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $34,944,000 after purchasing an additional 923,680 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $20,615,000. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 487.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 845,795 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $23,505,000 after purchasing an additional 701,856 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 215.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 969,705 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,948,000 after purchasing an additional 662,172 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.53, for a total value of $208,479.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,019,589 shares in the company, valued at $38,265,175.17. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at $1,326,323.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.53, for a total value of $208,479.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,019,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,265,175.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE:JNPR traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $34.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,677,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,295,185. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.83. The company has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.31, a PEG ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.35. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.07%. On average, analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.55.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers.