Citigroup Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by equities researchers at Citigroup in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $40.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target points to a potential upside of 2.91% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on JNPR. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Monday, September 16th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.67.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $38.87. The stock had a trading volume of 3,519,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,617,707. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.33 and a 200-day moving average of $36.76. The firm has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.33, a PEG ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks has a fifty-two week low of $24.87 and a fifty-two week high of $39.13.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. Juniper Networks’s revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total transaction of $1,047,278.57. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 56,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,049,588.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 108,669 shares of company stock valued at $3,947,279. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 95.7% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 50,131 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,828,000 after purchasing an additional 24,510 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 71.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,546 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 644 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,791 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 18,789 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after acquiring an additional 2,276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 203,828 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,432,000 after acquiring an additional 1,497 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.