Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 437,253 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 9,276 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $16,375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.3% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 84.7% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 89.0% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,922 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.06 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.13 and a 200 day moving average of $37.85. 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 market capitalization of $11.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JNPR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

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.