Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Grows Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 12.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,726 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,292 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $776,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Amundi lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the third quarter worth $25,337,000. Twin Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 760.3% in the third quarter. Twin Securities Inc. now owns 678,257 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $26,438,000 after purchasing an additional 599,420 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,620,269,000 after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on JNPR shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays raised their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded 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. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 42.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio 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.