Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Increases Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 9.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 157,338 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,030 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $5,902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at about $25,337,000. Twin Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 760.3% in the third quarter. Twin Securities Inc. now owns 678,257 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $26,438,000 after purchasing an additional 599,420 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 172,681.3% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 552,900 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $21,552,000 after purchasing an additional 552,580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1,885.0% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 497,430 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $19,390,000 after purchasing an additional 472,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $36.22 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $37.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.93. The firm has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.12, a P/E/G ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.72 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.27 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on JNPR. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

About Juniper Networks

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.