Banco BTG Pactual S.A. Makes New Investment in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 10,840 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $410,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 139.5% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the third quarter worth $76,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Barclays upped their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.0 %

Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.11 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.45. The stock has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a PE ratio of 41.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (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%. Research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.