DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Sells 21,203 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lessened its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 24.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 67,149 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 21,203 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,967,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 8.7% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 31,014 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,476 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,036,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 88,358 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,283,000 after acquiring an additional 16,513 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 43,510 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,617,000 after acquiring an additional 2,694 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,756,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.65 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.87 and a 52 week high of $38.04. The firm has a market cap of $11.89 billion, a PE ratio of 38.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.56 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $37.02 and its 200-day moving average is $32.22.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. Sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total value of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $3,645,610.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,726,308. 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 insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on JNPR shares. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. 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, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.27.

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.