Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Price Target Raised to $40.00 at Barclays

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) had its price objective lifted by Barclays from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

JNPR has been the topic of a number of other reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE JNPR opened at $36.63 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $35.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.69. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $33.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market cap of $12.25 billion, a PE ratio of 42.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,359,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $49,211,000 after acquiring an additional 39,943 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.4% in the first quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 25,583 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $926,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the last quarter. Tabor Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,546,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1,877.5% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,013,236 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,669,000 after purchasing an additional 961,998 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 10,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 915 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.