Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Has $2.64 Million Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lessened its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 27.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 70,399 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 26,257 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $2,636,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $25,337,000. Twin Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 760.3% during the third quarter. Twin Securities Inc. now owns 678,257 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,438,000 after acquiring an additional 599,420 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 172,681.3% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 552,900 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $21,552,000 after purchasing an additional 552,580 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.10 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.46 and a 200-day moving average of $37.46. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

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.