StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Equities researchers at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a report released on Friday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on JNPR. Barclays boosted their price target on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.55.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $34.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market cap of $11.32 billion, a PE ratio of 50.49, a P/E/G ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.09. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $24.87 and a 1-year high of $38.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at $2,726,308. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,726,308. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $205,071.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 840,518 shares in the company, valued at $31,023,519.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 227,412 shares of company stock worth $8,392,730 over the last ninety days. 1.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 46,266 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,286,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 2,096.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $13,212,000 after purchasing an additional 431,855 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 71.8% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 324,954 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,030,000 after purchasing an additional 135,823 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 112.1% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 181,032 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,031,000 after purchasing an additional 95,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 37.2% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 1,657,664 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $46,066,000 after purchasing an additional 449,575 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.