Kentucky Retirement Systems Decreases Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 4.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 24,447 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,066 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 137,652 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings 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 worth $390,028,000 after buying an additional 495,037 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $136,778,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,646,833 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $107,509,000 after buying an additional 219,410 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,821,292 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $83,172,000 after buying an additional 54,735 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total value of $193,647.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 986,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total value of $193,647.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 986,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $1,440,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 145,889 shares of company stock valued at $5,243,973 in the last quarter. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.40 during trading on Monday, reaching $37.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 749,180 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,712,462. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $12.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.99, a P/E/G ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 0.95. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.87 and a 1-year high of $38.04. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during 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 business’s revenue was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.34%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday. Barclays dropped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Argus raised Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.25.

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.