Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Price Target Cut to $40.00

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) had its price target dropped by equities researchers at Barclays from $41.00 to $40.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 7.24% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Monday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.27.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.5 %

JNPR stock traded down $0.19 during trading on Friday, reaching $37.30. The stock had a trading volume of 1,128,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,724,042. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $38.04. The company’s 50 day moving average is $35.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.32. The company has a market capitalization of $12.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.06, a P/E/G ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.02%. Equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total value of $193,647.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 986,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total value of $193,647.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 986,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total transaction of $1,047,278.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 56,107 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,049,588.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 145,889 shares of company stock worth $5,243,973 in the last three months. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its position in Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the first quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.