Yousif Capital Management LLC Cuts Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Yousif Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,837 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 723 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,679,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.3% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 84.7% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 89.0% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,922 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on JNPR. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.17 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market cap of $11.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.06, a PEG ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

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.