Amundi Purchases 1,559,884 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 60.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,559,884 shares during the quarter. Amundi owned about 1.26% of Juniper Networks worth $159,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,540,330 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $371,269,000 after acquiring an additional 417,050 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,134,795 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $117,398,000 after acquiring an additional 40,231 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,984,544 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $111,771,000 after acquiring an additional 27,227 shares during the period. Finally, Alpine Associates Management Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 2,676,064 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $104,313,000 after acquiring an additional 301,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE JNPR traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $35.61. The company had a trading volume of 2,745,617 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,188,587. 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 stock has a market cap of $11.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.63. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.47%. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 102.33%.

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.