Analysts Set Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) PT at $39.80

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $39.80.

Several research firms have recently commented on JNPR. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 25.5% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after acquiring an additional 33,016 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth $1,374,000. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,182,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.15 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $36.55 and its 200 day moving average is $37.52. The stock has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. 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 (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly 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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 2.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

About Juniper Networks

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.