Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at StockNews.com

Research analysts at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on JNPR. Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays reduced their price target on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, July 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $38.60 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.71. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $24.87 and a 1 year high of $39.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.94, a PEG ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $1,440,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 108,669 shares of company stock worth $3,947,279. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 2,069.4% during the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 781 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 745 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 1st quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.