Insider Selling: Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) CFO Sells 40,000 Shares of Stock

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $1,440,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Kenneth Bradley Miller also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, May 15th, Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of Juniper Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.8 %

JNPR stock traded up $0.29 during trading on Monday, reaching $36.75. 1,252,250 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,993,951. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.41. The company has a market capitalization of $11.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.50 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.09). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Mariner LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 2.9% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 22,700 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 69.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 83,014 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,307,000 after purchasing an additional 33,974 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 297.7% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 14,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 10,864 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.4% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 148,314 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,122,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 19.4% during the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,721 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on JNPR shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Argus raised Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on 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 three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

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.