Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.22 on March 24th

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the network equipment provider on Monday, March 24th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd.

Juniper Networks has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Juniper Networks has a payout ratio of 42.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Juniper Networks to earn $1.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 69.3%.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR opened at $35.99 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.70 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $37.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Juniper Networks has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.41% and a net margin of 4.97%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Company Profile

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.