Kestra Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 5,438 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sather Financial Group Inc boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,126,000 after buying an additional 38,936 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $17,406,000 after acquiring an additional 21,651 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,374,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.1 %

Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.09 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.90. The firm has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.96, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced 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%. Equities analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Juniper Networks 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.