Teacher Retirement System of Texas Acquires Shares of 48,386 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 48,386 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,751,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 32.0% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,778 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $179,000 after purchasing an additional 787 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,926,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,216,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 38,679 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,449,000 after buying an additional 2,598 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $39.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.36 billion, a PE ratio of 38.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.80. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company’s 50 day moving average is $36.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.49.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 6.78% and a return on equity of 8.71%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

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.