ABC Arbitrage SA Makes New Investment in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 139,526 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,225,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 84.7% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the third quarter worth $76,000. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 89.0% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,922 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $114,000 after buying an additional 1,376 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 8th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.55 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.50, a P/E/G ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $37.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.95. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.