Nokia (NYSE:NOK) versus Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Financial Contrast

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Dividends

Juniper Networks pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Nokia pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Juniper Networks pays out 83.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Nokia pays out 65.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nokia is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.9% of Juniper Networks shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.3% of Nokia shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Juniper Networks shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Juniper Networks and Nokia”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Juniper Networks	$5.20 billion	2.57	$287.90 million	$1.05	38.05
Nokia	$20.80 billion	1.06	$1.38 billion	$0.20	20.55

Nokia has higher revenue and earnings than Juniper Networks. Nokia is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Juniper Networks, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Juniper Networks has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nokia has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Juniper Networks and Nokia’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Juniper Networks	6.78%	8.71%	4.18%
Nokia	5.30%	8.36%	4.49%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Juniper Networks and Nokia, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Juniper Networks	0	4	1	0	2.20
Nokia	1	0	4	0	2.60

Juniper Networks presently has a consensus price target of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.13%. Nokia has a consensus price target of $5.78, suggesting a potential upside of 40.51%. Given Nokia’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Nokia is more favorable than Juniper Networks.

Summary

Nokia beats Juniper Networks on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It also provides switching products, including EX series Ethernet switches to address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments; QFX series of core, spine, and top-of-rack data center switches; and juniper access points, which provide Wi-Fi access and performance. In addition, the company offers security products comprising SRX series services gateways for the data center; Branch SRX family provides an integrated and next-generation firewall; virtual firewall that delivers various features of physical firewalls; and advanced malware protection, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP. Further, it offers Junos OS, a network operating system; Contrail networking, which provides an open-source and standards-based platform for SDN; Mist AI-driven Wired, Wireless, and WAN assurance solutions to set and measure key metrics; Mist AI-driven Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, which identifies the root cause of issues; Juniper Paragon Automation, a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications; and Juniper Apstra to automate the network lifecycle in a single system. Additionally, the company provides software-as-a-service, technical support, maintenance, and professional services, as well as education and training programs. It sells its products through direct sales, distributors, value-added resellers, and original equipment manufacturers to end-users in the cloud, service provider, and enterprise markets. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

About Nokia

Nokia Oyj provides mobile, fixed, and cloud network solutions worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Network Infrastructure, Mobile Networks, Cloud and Network Services, and Nokia Technologies. The company provides fixed networking solutions, such as fiber and copper-based access infrastructure, in-home Wi-Fi solutions, and cloud and virtualization services; IP networking solutions, including IP access, aggregation, and edge and core routing for residential, mobile, enterprise and cloud applications; optical networks solutions that provides optical transport networks for metro, regional, and long-haul applications, and subsea applications; and submarine networks for undersea cable transmission. It serves its products and services to communications service providers, webscales and hyperscalers, digital industries, and government. The company also offers mobile technology products and services for radio access networks and microwave radio links for transport networks, network management solutions, as well as network planning, optimization, network deployment, and technical support services. In addition, it offers cloud and network services, including core network solutions, such as voice and packet core; business applications, such as security, automation, and monetization; cloud and cognitive services; and enterprise solutions, including private wireless and industrial automation. Further, the company licenses intellectual property, including patents, technologies, and the Nokia brand. Nokia Oyj was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.