Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Buys 239,315 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 56.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 664,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 239,315 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $19,602,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 74.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 92.1% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 974 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 467 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the 4th 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 during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 2,224.7% in the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,976 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 1,891 shares during the period. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $74,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at $1,326,323.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’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 $37,187,078.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.65 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $11.89 billion, a PE ratio of 38.58, a P/E/G ratio of 7.51 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $37.02 and a 200 day moving average of $32.26. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.87 and a 52 week high of $38.04.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. Morgan Stanley upgraded 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. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average 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.