Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research note published on Sunday. The firm issued a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

JNPR has been the subject of several other reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $34.55.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $34.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.74. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $38.04. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $35.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.93. The stock has a market cap of $11.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.71 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total value of $207,923.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,008,479 shares in the company, valued at $37,747,368.97. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 48,330 shares of company stock valued at $1,732,206. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 46,266 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,286,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,821,292 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,172,000 after acquiring an additional 54,735 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 2,096.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,212,000 after acquiring an additional 431,855 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 71.8% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 324,954 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,030,000 after acquiring an additional 135,823 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 43.9% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 520,932 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,357,000 after acquiring an additional 158,913 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.