M&T Bank Corp Reduces Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

M&T Bank Corp decreased its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 16.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,442 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,690 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $703,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $262,618,000. FIL Ltd raised its position in Juniper Networks by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,593,000 after purchasing an additional 2,167,567 shares in the last quarter. Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $43,413,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP raised its position in Juniper Networks by 70.1% during the 4th quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 2,811,005 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $105,272,000 after purchasing an additional 1,158,713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Juniper Networks by 66.1% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,568,829 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $96,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022,508 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $39.95 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.42 and a 1-year high of $39.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $37.02 and a 200-day moving average of $36.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The company has a market capitalization of $13.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.05, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.80.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 8.71% and a net margin of 6.78%. 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. Juniper Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on JNPR shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Juniper Networks 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.