Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $39.80.

Several research firms recently commented on JNPR. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price 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 upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in 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 valued at $1,620,269,000 after acquiring an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $370,461,000 after purchasing an additional 356,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $262,618,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.12 on Tuesday. 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 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a PE ratio of 41.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s 50 day moving average is $36.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.56.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

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.