Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 1,066 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 4.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,447 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,066 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,576 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 73,686 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,731,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the period. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 27,413 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $808,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR traded up $0.40 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $37.65. The stock had a trading volume of 749,180 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,712,462. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.36. The company has a market cap of $12.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.99, a PEG ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 0.95.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 127.54%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on JNPR shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Monday, July 22nd. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total value of $197,146.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,428,813.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 145,889 shares of company stock valued at $5,243,973 over the last ninety days. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.