Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 599,214 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 599,214 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 13.07% of Juniper Networks worth $1,620,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Juniper Networks by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 139.5% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at $76,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.43. The company has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 42.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

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.