Arizona State Retirement System Raises Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 95,606 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,497 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,580,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after buying an additional 574,418 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,540,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $371,269,000 after acquiring an additional 417,050 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,134,795 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $117,398,000 after purchasing an additional 40,231 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,984,544 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $111,771,000 after purchasing an additional 27,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Associates Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 2,676,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $104,313,000 after purchasing an additional 301,900 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.07 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $36.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.69. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.94, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on JNPR shares. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays raised their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average 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.