Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

Research analysts at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a report issued on Wednesday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on JNPR. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley raised Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.27.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock opened at $36.42 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $11.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.34, a PEG ratio of 7.51 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.38. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total transaction of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $3,645,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in Juniper Networks by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 46,266 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,286,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Juniper Networks by 2,096.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $13,212,000 after purchasing an additional 431,855 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Juniper Networks by 71.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 324,954 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,030,000 after purchasing an additional 135,823 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in Juniper Networks by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 181,032 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,031,000 after purchasing an additional 95,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 37.2% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 1,657,664 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,066,000 after buying an additional 449,575 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.