Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 1,559 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 28,274 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,559 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $834,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $236,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 61.3% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 367,916 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,846,000 after purchasing an additional 139,770 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $569,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $224,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on JNPR shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.27.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $34.95 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.79, a PEG ratio of 7.48 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. Research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.53, for a total transaction of $208,479.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,019,589 shares in the company, valued at $38,265,175.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602 over the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks 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.