Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Sold by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 45,352 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,304 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,337,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $95,829,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 11,418.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,829,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $83,401,000 after purchasing an additional 2,804,509 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 34,426,578 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,184,963,000 after purchasing an additional 2,776,885 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,412,994 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $514,219,000 after purchasing an additional 1,613,651 shares during the period. Finally, Man Group plc boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 227.6% during the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 1,718,992 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $54,939,000 after purchasing an additional 1,194,259 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.8 %

JNPR stock opened at $36.65 on Monday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The firm 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.35.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released 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). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend 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%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on JNPR shares. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.27.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total transaction of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

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.