Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Announces $0.22 Quarterly Dividend

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the network equipment provider on Monday, June 24th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd.

Juniper Networks has raised its dividend by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. Juniper Networks has a dividend payout ratio of 35.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Juniper Networks to earn $1.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.3%.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $34.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,677,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,295,185. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $36.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.31, a P/E/G ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.80. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $24.87 and a 1-year high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.07%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on JNPR shares. 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 research report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective 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. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total value of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $205,071.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 840,518 shares in the company, valued at $31,023,519.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.