Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research note released on Monday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on JNPR. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, July 26th. Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $38.96 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $38.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.46, a P/E/G ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.93. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $39.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.69.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 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, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 127.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total transaction of $1,440,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 108,669 shares of company stock worth $3,947,279 in the last ninety days. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 95.7% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 50,131 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,828,000 after acquiring an additional 24,510 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 71.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,546 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 644 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 422 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,276 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.7% in 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 buying an additional 1,497 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.