State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $4.86 Million Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 25.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 133,371 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 46,645 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $4,863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 224,275 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,612,000 after purchasing an additional 34,875 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 65.7% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,800 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 45.7% during the 4th quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 34,302 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,011,000 after acquiring an additional 10,758 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $136,778,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JNPR. Argus raised Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Monday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total transaction of $1,047,278.57. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 56,107 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,049,588.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders sold 108,669 shares of company stock valued at $3,947,279. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $38.63 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.23. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $39.06. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.55 billion, a PE ratio of 55.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

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.