PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Sells 1,478 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 43,379 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,478 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Andra AP fonden grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 105.6% during the fourth quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 289,900 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,857,000 after acquiring an additional 148,900 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $251,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $8,216,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 95,606 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,580,000 after buying an additional 2,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $1,926,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on JNPR. Barclays raised their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR opened at $35.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.59. The firm has a market cap of $11.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.52, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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, analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

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.