Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.55.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on JNPR shares. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. 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 reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the sale, 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. 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.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Juniper Networks by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,126,775 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,212,417,000 after purchasing an additional 137,652 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Juniper Networks by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,230,251 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $390,028,000 after purchasing an additional 495,037 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,982,734 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,260,000 after purchasing an additional 219,860 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Juniper Networks by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,709,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,655,000 after purchasing an additional 502,673 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $136,778,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $34.71 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.78. 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 firm has a market cap of $11.28 billion, a PE ratio of 36.54, a P/E/G ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Juniper Networks 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 issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 92.63%.

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.