Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

JNPR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.40 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $33.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.17 billion, a PE ratio of 42.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.42%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 83.81%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 283 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.8% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,915 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $612,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,413 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 3.1% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 11,140 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.