Groupama Asset Managment Acquires Shares of 27,234 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 27,234 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,017,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,620,269,000 after acquiring an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $370,461,000 after buying an additional 356,672 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth $262,618,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on JNPR. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on 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 and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.08 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $36.11 and its 200 day moving average is $37.35. The stock has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Sell-side 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 was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.