Sather Financial Group Inc Acquires 42,945 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Sather Financial Group Inc lifted its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 302,731 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 42,945 shares during the period. Juniper Networks comprises approximately 0.7% of Sather Financial Group Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Sather Financial Group Inc’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $11,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Juniper Networks by 5.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,406,000 after purchasing an additional 21,651 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after buying an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after acquiring an additional 33,016 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,374,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1,885.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 497,430 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $19,390,000 after acquiring an additional 472,370 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JNPR has been the subject of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays raised their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.6 %

JNPR stock opened at $36.17 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $37.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.98. The firm has a market cap of $11.98 billion, a PE ratio of 42.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

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.