Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 5,018 call options on the company. This is an increase of 665% compared to the typical daily volume of 656 call options.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total transaction of $197,146.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,428,813.51. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total transaction of $197,146.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,428,813.51. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,330 shares of company stock valued at $1,708,320 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter worth $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JNPR has been the topic of several research reports. Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR opened at $36.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.19, a PEG ratio of 9.24 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $35.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.28. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for 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%. Equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.