Athos Capital Ltd Raises Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Athos Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 157.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 48,999 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 29,999 shares during the period. Juniper Networks accounts for approximately 0.8% of Athos Capital Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Athos Capital Ltd's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,835,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 80.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 17,324 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 7,709 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Juniper Networks by 19.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 53,118 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,071,000 after acquiring an additional 8,577 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $224,000. Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter worth about $210,000. Finally, Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.9% during the third quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 10,810 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 3,500 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on JNPR shares. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Barclays lifted their price target 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, Argus cut Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:JNPR traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $34.06. 889,896 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,278,803. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.12 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.58, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The firm's 50 day moving average is $35.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.19. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by 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.