Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $34.55.

JNPR has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of JNPR opened at $35.46 on Friday. Juniper Networks has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $35.32 and its 200-day moving average is $34.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.52 billion, a PE ratio of 51.39, a P/E/G ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 4.19%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total value of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total transaction of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at $37,187,078.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,330 shares of company stock valued at $1,708,320. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.6% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,201 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares during the period. Pathstone Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 15,262 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $424,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914 shares during the period. Aviva PLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 604.6% during the 3rd quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 204,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,695,000 after acquiring an additional 175,831 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $638,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,163,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.