Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Purchases 9,865 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 334,148 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,865 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp owned 0.10% of Juniper Networks worth $12,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,182,000. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after acquiring an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

JNPR opened at $36.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a PE ratio of 41.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.41. 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.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on JNPR. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.