Brokerages Set Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) PT at $34.55

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $34.55.

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Sunday, May 19th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $34.69 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $11.27 billion, a PE ratio of 50.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.05 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.74. Juniper Networks has a fifty-two week low of $24.87 and a fifty-two week high of $38.04. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 4.19%. Analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.53, for a total transaction of $208,479.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,019,589 shares in the company, valued at $38,265,175.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,330 shares of company stock worth $1,732,206 in the last 90 days. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $136,778,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 11,418.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,829,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,401,000 after purchasing an additional 2,804,509 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the first quarter valued at about $86,494,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 276.7% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,257,447 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $34,944,000 after buying an additional 923,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 859.1% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 836,900 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,016,000 after buying an additional 749,641 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.