Brokerages Set Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Price Target at $39.80

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the six research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $39.80.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR traded down $0.10 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $36.07. The stock had a trading volume of 1,421,022 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,105,937. The firm has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a PE ratio of 41.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. 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 has a 12 month low of $33.72 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.52.

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Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share 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%. Analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction 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 trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 596,479 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $22,338,000 after acquiring an additional 81,075 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Juniper Networks by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,130 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134 shares during the last quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH acquired a new position in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth $602,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $9,019,000. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $1,872,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.