Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Raises Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,941 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 0.9% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 633,850 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $23,110,000 after buying an additional 5,428 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 31.5% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 20,054 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $731,000 after buying an additional 4,806 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 8.6% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,852 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $359,000 after buying an additional 777 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 26.3% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 44,018 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,605,000 after buying an additional 9,169 shares during the period. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 6.0% during the second quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 37,545 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,369,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total value of $1,047,278.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 56,107 shares in the company, valued at $2,049,588.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 108,669 shares of company stock worth $3,947,279. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock opened at $38.34 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.69. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.87 and a 1 year high of $39.06. The firm has a market cap of $12.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.14 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.67.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. Juniper Networks’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 127.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on JNPR. StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Sunday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, July 26th. Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.25.

Juniper Networks 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.