Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Short Interest Up 23.6% in December

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 11,360,000 shares, a growth of 23.6% from the November 30th total of 9,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,870,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days. Approximately 3.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Juniper Networks by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,540,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $371,269,000 after buying an additional 417,050 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 14,314.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,832,105 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $176,179,000 after buying an additional 4,798,583 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after acquiring an additional 33,016 shares during the period. Finally, Alpine Associates Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 2,676,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $104,313,000 after acquiring an additional 301,900 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.02 on Tuesday, reaching $37.37. 233,273 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,644,505. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.37 billion, a PE ratio of 49.17, a PEG ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 0.89. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $29.13 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.80.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.35%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on JNPR. Barclays reduced their price objective on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Monday, September 16th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.50.

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.