Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Increases Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 38,679 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,598 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,449,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in JNPR. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Juniper Networks by 60.3% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in Juniper Networks by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 883,057 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $34,422,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its position in Juniper Networks by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 49,860 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,944,000 after purchasing an additional 3,335 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in Juniper Networks by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 55,936 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,180,000 after purchasing an additional 4,143 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1,885.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 497,430 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $19,390,000 after buying an additional 472,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.4 %

JNPR stock opened at $35.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.72 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.72 and a 200 day moving average of $37.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.90 billion, a PE ratio of 41.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on JNPR. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report 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 target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the sale, 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 the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

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.