Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.22

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the network equipment provider on Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th.

Juniper Networks has raised its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Juniper Networks has a dividend payout ratio of 44.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Juniper Networks to earn $1.36 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.7%.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $38.81 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.24, a P/E/G ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $39.03. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.57.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, August 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.25.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.17, for a total transaction of $195,369.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 981,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,509,120.53. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.17, for a total value of $195,369.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 981,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,509,120.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.50, for a total transaction of $1,460,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 124,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,554,324. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 119,779 shares of company stock worth $4,339,795 over the last 90 days. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.