Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Purchases 456 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,413 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 456 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $808,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,075 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $308,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 8.2% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 4,968 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $138,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.0% in the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 40,842 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.27.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total value of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total value of $205,868.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,187,078.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE JNPR opened at $34.95 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.73. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $38.04. The company has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.79, a P/E/G ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.80.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is presently 92.63%.

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.