Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Lowered to “Buy” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday morning.

JNPR has been the subject of several other reports. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a fifty day moving average of $36.26 and a 200-day moving average of $37.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,620,269,000 after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after buying an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,593,000 after buying an additional 2,167,567 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $370,461,000 after buying an additional 356,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth $262,618,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.