Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Sold by Prudential PLC

Prudential PLC cut its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 93,125 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 9,065 shares during the period. Prudential PLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,488,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings 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 worth $577,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted 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 worth $614,280,000 after acquiring an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,302,000 after purchasing an additional 9,548 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of JNPR opened at $33.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.72 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $11.31 billion, a PE ratio of 39.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $35.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.29.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings results 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on JNPR. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research 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 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five investment 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, the stock presently has a consensus 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.