Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Acquires Shares of 28,430 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund bought a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 28,430 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,065,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 11.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,929 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $816,000 after buying an additional 2,140 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 22.2% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,996 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 1,451 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 14.3% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 49,416 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,911,000 after buying an additional 6,177 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.3% in the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 37,933 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,478,000 after buying an additional 2,595 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,734 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $574,000 after buying an additional 2,506 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company's stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:JNPR traded up $0.07 on Wednesday, reaching $36.01. 1,301,484 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,189,783. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. The company's 50 day moving average is $37.01 and its 200-day moving average is $37.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 102.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com downgraded Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Barclays upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target 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.