TCW Group Inc. Grows Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

TCW Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 31.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,935 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,596 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 30.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,224 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 91.9% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 39.6% during the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,364 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 387 shares during the period. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the first quarter valued at about $72,000. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $124,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on JNPR shares. Barclays raised their price target on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $39.95 on Tuesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.42 and a 12-month high of $39.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $37.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.80.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.71% and a net margin of 6.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.20%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

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.