Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors bought 9,640 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 63% compared to the average daily volume of 5,912 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. MML Investors Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.1% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,066 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $431,000 after buying an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 20.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 210,338 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,153,000 after acquiring an additional 35,337 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,337,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,406,000 after acquiring an additional 21,651 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 23.6% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,522 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,056 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Barclays raised their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $34.04 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $35.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.90. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $33.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.