Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a report issued on Thursday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

JNPR has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays restated an equal weight rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp restated a sector weight rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a hold rating and set a $40.00 target price (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $34.27.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $34.95 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a PE ratio of 36.79, a P/E/G ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. Equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $205,071.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 840,518 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,023,519.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $205,071.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 840,518 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,023,519.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 15.6% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,091 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the third quarter worth about $230,000. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 47.5% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 56,167 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,561,000 after purchasing an additional 18,096 shares during the period. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Roof Eidam Maycock Peralta LLC now owns 44,837 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,246,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $749,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.