Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 9,640 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 63% compared to the average volume of 5,912 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $35.56. 981,602 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,237,721. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.35, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. Juniper Networks has a 12-month low of $33.42 and a 12-month 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.83.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last posted 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 return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 102.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,620,269,000 after buying an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $477,593,000 after acquiring an additional 2,167,567 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $370,461,000 after purchasing an additional 356,672 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $262,618,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,525,290 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $244,372,000 after purchasing an additional 987,431 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.