Xponance Inc. Sells 5,406 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Xponance Inc. decreased its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 10.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 45,393 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 5,406 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Hartford Financial Management Inc. grew its position in Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 3.5% during the third quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,075 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $308,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Wahed Invest LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 8.2% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 4,968 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $138,000 after buying an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 40,842 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after buying an additional 410 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $35.35 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $11.47 billion, a PE ratio of 37.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.40 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.87 and a 52 week high of $38.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $36.88 and its 200-day moving average is $32.71. 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 (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 2.49%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JNPR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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.

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.