New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $7.15 Million Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 190,908 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 11,800 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.06% of Juniper Networks worth $7,150,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Juniper Networks by 60.3% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 84.7% during the 3rd quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at about $76,000. Finally, Quarry LP increased its position 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 valued at $114,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $35.99 on Thursday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.72 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $11.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued 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%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on JNPR shares. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

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.