Barclays PLC Sells 73,818 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Barclays PLC lessened its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 746,231 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 73,818 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned about 0.23% of Juniper Networks worth $27,946,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,182 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 426 shares during the period. Water Island Capital LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Water Island Capital LLC now owns 957,573 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $35,861,000 after buying an additional 94,212 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 57.5% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 19,303 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $723,000 after acquiring an additional 7,048 shares during the last quarter. Quinn Opportunity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $14,878,000. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 18,343 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $687,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on JNPR shares. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE JNPR traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $35.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 367,400 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,257,931. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $35.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.87. The company has a market cap of $11.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

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.