Juniper Networks’ (JNPR) Neutral Rating Reaffirmed at Citigroup

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Citigroup in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 2.91% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on JNPR. Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays dropped their target price on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Monday, September 16th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.67.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded down $0.03 during trading on Monday, reaching $38.87. The company had a trading volume of 3,519,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,617,707. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a PE ratio of 56.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $39.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.76.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.50, for a total transaction of $1,460,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 124,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,554,324. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 108,669 shares of company stock valued at $3,947,279. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Oak Thistle LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 8,015 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.5% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 27,941 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,019,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,903 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 7.9% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,791 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keene & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Keene & Associates Inc. now owns 11,485 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.