Balentine LLC Reduces Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Balentine LLC lowered its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR – Get Rating) by 50.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,082 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 10,278 shares during the period. Balentine LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 85.7% in the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 455.5% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,311 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 112.8% in the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 2,019 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on JNPR shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Credit Suisse Group upped their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 20th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 26th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday, October 12th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.80.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.79, for a total transaction of $192,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 813,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,054,900.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 6,250 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.79, for a total value of $192,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 813,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,054,900.65. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Scott Kriens sold 140,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.42, for a total transaction of $4,258,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,860,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,581,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 170,186 shares of company stock valued at $5,204,575. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE JNPR opened at $31.95 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.91. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.18 and a 52-week high of $38.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 8.22% and a return on equity of 10.11%. Equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 1st were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 30th. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is presently 65.12%.

Juniper Networks Profile

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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.