Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Stock Rating Upgraded by Argus

Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $40.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on JNPR. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. They set a hold rating for the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $35.00.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Juniper Networks stock opened at $35.69 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $35.18 and a 200-day moving average of $35.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.73, a PEG ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 0.96. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $38.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released 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). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $43,000. 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.