Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Purchased by Larson Financial Group LLC

Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 139.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $67,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after acquiring an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,540,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $371,269,000 after purchasing an additional 417,050 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,134,795 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $117,398,000 after purchasing an additional 40,231 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,984,544 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $111,771,000 after purchasing an additional 27,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Associates Management Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 12.7% during the third quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 2,676,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $104,313,000 after purchasing an additional 301,900 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented 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 cut Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.2 %

Juniper Networks stock opened at $35.61 on Thursday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.