Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.80.

JNPR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays upped their target price 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.07 on Tuesday. Juniper Networks has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a PE 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 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%. Analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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

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 that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Juniper Networks by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,413 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,182 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 426 shares during the period. Wahed Invest LLC grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 8,420 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $315,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares during the period. Finally, Gould Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 29,298 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.