Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $35.00.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on JNPR shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Barclays lifted their price target on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Sunday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total transaction of $1,047,278.57. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 56,107 shares in the company, valued at $2,049,588.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total transaction of $1,047,278.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 56,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,049,588.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total transaction of $193,647.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 986,764 shares in the company, valued at $34,398,593.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 145,889 shares of company stock worth $5,243,973. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,047,880 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $112,491,000 after acquiring an additional 176,253 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,989,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,139,088,000 after purchasing an additional 325,418 shares in the last quarter. FCF Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $525,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 2,096.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $13,212,000 after buying an additional 431,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kwmg LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Kwmg LLC now owns 161,782 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,769,000 after buying an additional 2,535 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $37.20 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.91, a PEG ratio of 9.68 and a beta of 0.95. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $38.04. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.37%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

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.