Franklin Resources Inc. Buys 192,575 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 91.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 402,913 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 192,575 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.12% of Juniper Networks worth $15,089,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 25.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,412,000 after acquiring an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 660 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $614,280,000 after buying an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $3,302,000 after buying an additional 9,548 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company's stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of JNPR traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $34.90. The stock had a trading volume of 1,817,097 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,284,936. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.10. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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