Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.22

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the network equipment provider on Monday, March 24th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd.

Juniper Networks has increased its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Juniper Networks has a payout ratio of 39.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Juniper Networks to earn $1.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.7%.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.5 %

JNPR opened at $36.16 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $33.72 and a one year high of $39.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Company 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.