Blue Trust Inc. Sells 636 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Blue Trust Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 15.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,475 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 636 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $130,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sather Financial Group Inc raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,126,000 after buying an additional 38,936 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,406,000 after acquiring an additional 21,651 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after acquiring an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after acquiring an additional 33,016 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,374,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $35.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The stock has a market cap of $11.91 billion, a PE ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $37.20 and a 200-day moving average of $37.89. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $33.72 and a one year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. 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 2.45%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.