Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Short Interest Update

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,760,000 shares, a decline of 12.2% from the January 15th total of 11,120,000 shares. Currently, 3.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,470,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Sather Financial Group Inc raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,126,000 after purchasing an additional 38,936 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,406,000 after buying an additional 21,651 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after buying an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Juniper Networks by 1.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $115,276,000 after buying an additional 33,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,374,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR traded down $0.33 on Tuesday, reaching $36.22. The company had a trading volume of 3,549,397 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,817,377. The stock has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.12, a P/E/G ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.46. Juniper Networks has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company’s fifty day moving average is $37.27 and its 200 day moving average is $37.93.

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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNPR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays boosted their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.