Juniper Networks Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 15,185 call options on the company. This is an increase of 88% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,098 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on JNPR. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $36.15. 950,807 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,104,383. The firm has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.53. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $262,618,000. FIL Ltd grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,593,000 after acquiring an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares in the last quarter. Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $43,413,000. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 70.1% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 2,811,005 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $105,272,000 after buying an additional 1,158,713 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.