Barclays Increases Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Price Target to $41.00

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays from $40.00 to $41.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 18.12% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 target price (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.55.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $34.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.80. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $38.04. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $36.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.31, a P/E/G ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.07%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Juniper Networks news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total value of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,326,323.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,126,775 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,212,417,000 after purchasing an additional 137,652 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,230,251 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $390,028,000 after buying an additional 495,037 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,982,734 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $166,260,000 after buying an additional 219,860 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,709,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,655,000 after acquiring an additional 502,673 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $136,778,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.