National Bank of Canada FI Sells 81,208 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

National Bank of Canada FI cut its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 15.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 431,100 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 81,208 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.13% of Juniper Networks worth $16,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in JNPR. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 91.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 402,913 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $15,089,000 after purchasing an additional 192,575 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,120,532 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $79,414,000 after purchasing an additional 341,423 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Juniper Networks by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 23,672 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $887,000 after purchasing an additional 1,852 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 19,746 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $739,000 after buying an additional 683 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 67.7% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 20,170 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $753,000 after purchasing an additional 8,145 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Juniper Networks Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR traded down $0.50 during trading on Thursday, reaching $34.65. 537,884 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,852,558. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $35.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.15. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $11.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84.

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 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com cut Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five 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 company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.80.

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.