Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reissued 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 reissued an equal weight rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Juniper Networks from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $34.55.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.7 %

JNPR stock opened at $34.71 on Thursday. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.30, a PEG ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $36.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.88.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.07%. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 127.54%.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, 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 value of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total value of $205,868.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,091 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares in the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth $230,000. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 56,167 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,561,000 after acquiring an additional 18,096 shares in the last quarter. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC now owns 44,837 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,246,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $749,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by 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.