DLD Asset Management LP Takes Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

DLD Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,823 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $405,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $1,017,000. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $3,955,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Juniper Networks by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $370,461,000 after buying an additional 356,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 91.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 402,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,089,000 after acquiring an additional 192,575 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were 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 owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of several research reports. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

JNPR opened at $36.14 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.36. The company has a market capitalization of $12.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.02, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 102.33%.

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.