Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 5,018 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 665% compared to the average daily volume of 656 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on JNPR shares. Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.9 %

JNPR stock opened at $36.01 on Friday. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $24.87 and a 1-year high of $38.04. The firm has a market cap of $11.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.19, a P/E/G ratio of 9.24 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50 day moving average is $35.12 and its 200-day moving average is $35.28. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total value of $197,146.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,428,813.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 48,330 shares of company stock valued at $1,708,320. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the 1st quarter worth $43,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.