StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a report issued on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

JNPR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Juniper Networks stock opened at $38.86 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.46. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $24.87 and a 1 year high of $39.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,428,813.51. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total transaction of $197,146.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,428,813.51. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $1,440,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 119,779 shares of company stock valued at $4,339,795. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 2,069.4% in the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 781 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 745 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the first quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.