Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Bought by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,503 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,202 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,404,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 139.5% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 84.7% during the 3rd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at $76,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 32.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business’s 50 day moving average is $36.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.46. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI raised 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five equities 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.