Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 2,389 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Retirement Systems of Alabama decreased its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,655,275 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,389 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned approximately 0.52% of Juniper Networks worth $48,798,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Hartford Financial Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.5% during the third quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,075 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 8.2% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 4,968 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.0% during the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 40,842 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after acquiring an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently 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 Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of Juniper Networks 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $34.69 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.31, a PEG ratio of 7.24 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. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.88. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $38.04.

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 10.02%. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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

Juniper Networks 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.