Short Interest in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Rises By 18.6%

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,460,000 shares, an increase of 18.6% from the February 29th total of 11,350,000 shares. Approximately 4.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $37.05 on Tuesday. Juniper Networks has a 12-month low of $24.87 and a 12-month high of $38.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $37.04 and its 200 day moving average is $31.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.00, a P/E/G ratio of 7.59 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Research analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JNPR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 target price (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Monday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.27.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,496 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.35, for a total transaction of $199,779.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,888 shares in the company, valued at $1,122,778.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,496 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.35, for a total value of $199,779.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,122,778.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.96, for a total transaction of $166,457.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 846,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,348,377.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 216,244 shares of company stock worth $7,960,214 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 92.1% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 974 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 467 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ronald Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 74.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.