Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Sold by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. reduced its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 178,778 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 18,720 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Juniper Networks worth $6,695,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Gould Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 29,298 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,913 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $184,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.2% during the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 47,639 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,857,000 after acquiring an additional 580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded 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 note on Tuesday, February 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE JNPR traded down $0.06 on Wednesday, hitting $36.08. 1,088,969 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,280,781. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $36.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.36. The company has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a PE ratio of 41.95, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Sell-side 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 was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid 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 was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, 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 available at this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.