Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Stake Raised by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 8.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 542,298 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 41,400 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned 0.16% of Juniper Networks worth $20,309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $262,618,000. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $477,593,000 after purchasing an additional 2,167,567 shares during the period. Amundi grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Juniper Networks by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,525,290 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $244,372,000 after purchasing an additional 987,431 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 69.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 1,710,771 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $64,068,000 after buying an additional 700,111 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.71 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $35.34. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,070,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,268,544. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market cap of $11.77 billion, a PE ratio of 41.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $35.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.88.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks 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 transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Juniper Networks 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.