Intech Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Intech Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 6.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 102,643 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,104 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,742,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 2,069.4% in the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 781 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 745 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the second quarter worth about $36,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the first quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Argus raised 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 shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Monday, September 16th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.25.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total transaction of $1,047,278.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 56,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,049,588.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 108,669 shares of company stock valued at $3,947,279. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of JNPR opened at $38.90 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $39.13. The company has a market cap of $12.64 billion, a PE ratio of 56.38, a P/E/G ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a fifty day moving average of $38.33 and a 200 day moving average of $36.76.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

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.