abrdn plc Acquires 63,830 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

abrdn plc boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 59.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 170,509 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 63,830 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $5,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hartford Financial Management Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $74,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $81,000. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 466.4% in the 3rd quarter. Buck Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 2,402 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.10, for a total value of $206,127.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 829,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,770,962.60. 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 company insiders.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $34.71 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a PE ratio of 50.31, a P/E/G ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.87 and a 1-year high of $38.04. The business has a 50-day moving average of $36.79 and a 200 day moving average of $32.83. 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 quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.07% and a net margin of 4.19%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 127.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JNPR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.55.

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.