Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $8.22 Million in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 219,397 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,216,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 84.7% during the 3rd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $76,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 32.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 89.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,922 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE JNPR opened at $36.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a PE ratio of 41.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $33.72 and a one year high of $39.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $36.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.49.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI raised 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. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

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.