StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a report published on Monday. The firm issued a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

JNPR has been the subject of a number of other reports. Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays dropped their price target on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $38.98 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $12.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.49, a PEG ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $39.09. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $38.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.73.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The business’s revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 127.54%.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.50, for a total value of $1,460,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 124,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,554,324. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 108,669 shares of company stock worth $3,947,279. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 14,314.7% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,832,105 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $176,179,000 after acquiring an additional 4,798,583 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $136,778,000. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter worth $86,494,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 859.1% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 836,900 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,016,000 after buying an additional 749,641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the first quarter valued at $23,379,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.