Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Sets New 52-Week High at $39.04

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $39.04 and last traded at $39.03, with a volume of 811940 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $38.82.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on JNPR. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Barclays dropped their target price on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market cap of $12.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.28, a P/E/G ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $37.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.57.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.17, for a total transaction of $195,369.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 981,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,509,120.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,059,660. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 119,779 shares of company stock valued at $4,339,795 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,126,775 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,212,417,000 after purchasing an additional 137,652 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $390,028,000 after purchasing an additional 495,037 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 14,314.7% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,832,105 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $176,179,000 after purchasing an additional 4,798,583 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $136,778,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,646,833 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $107,509,000 after purchasing an additional 219,410 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.