Brokerages Set Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) PT at $34.55

Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $35.00.

JNPR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total value of $205,868.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at $37,187,078.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.06, for a total transaction of $205,868.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,003,429 shares in the company, valued at $37,187,078.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 48,330 shares of company stock valued at $1,708,320. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $1,212,417,000 after acquiring an additional 137,652 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,230,251 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $390,028,000 after acquiring an additional 495,037 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,982,734 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $166,260,000 after acquiring an additional 219,860 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.7% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $136,778,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $35.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.74. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.04. The firm has a market cap of $11.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.35, a PEG ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 0.96.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.09). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 127.54%.

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.