Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 45,783 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,715,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 47.8% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the 4th 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. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.40 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $12.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $35.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.59.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Juniper Networks’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.42%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.81%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. 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 research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

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.