Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Purchases 192,678 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 52.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 560,159 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 192,678 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned about 0.17% of Juniper Networks worth $20,978,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $262,618,000. Amundi lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 60.1% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $159,510,000 after acquiring an additional 1,559,884 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the third quarter worth about $25,337,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,620,269,000 after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 736.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 654,750 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $24,520,000 after purchasing an additional 576,461 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. 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 research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays raised their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Argus downgraded 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 given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock traded up $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $34.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 385,791 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,277,405. 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 company's fifty day moving average is $35.80 and its 200-day moving average is $37.12. The company has a market capitalization of $11.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.42 and a 1 year 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 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%. On average, research analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.