Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 15,185 call options on the company. This is an increase of 88% compared to the average daily volume of 8,098 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. Barclays increased their target price 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 596,479 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $22,338,000 after purchasing an additional 81,075 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 26.7% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,130 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $379,000 after acquiring an additional 2,134 shares during the last quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $602,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,019,000. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,872,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

JNPR opened at $36.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.54.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.