Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $34.55.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on JNPR. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total value of $205,868.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total transaction of $205,868.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at $37,187,078.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 1st quarter worth approximately $55,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.7 %

JNPR opened at $34.71 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.28 billion, a PE ratio of 36.54, a P/E/G ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks has a 52 week low of $24.87 and a 52 week high of $38.04. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.78.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.63%.

Juniper Networks Company 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.