Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP Acquires Shares of 74,583 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP bought a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 74,583 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,786,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 38,488 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,500,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 80.2% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 17,324 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $675,000 after buying an additional 7,709 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in Juniper Networks by 6.2% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 36,081 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,406,000 after buying an additional 2,116 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 815,384 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,759,000 after acquiring an additional 33,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 150.8% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 35,821 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,396,000 after acquiring an additional 21,538 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on JNPR shares. StockNews.com downgraded Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.11, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.31 and a 200-day moving average of $37.43. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.72 and a 52 week high of $39.79. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share 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 research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

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.