Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co Lowers Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co cut its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 20.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 5,879 shares during the quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $861,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE increased its position in Juniper Networks by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at $1,182,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted 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 worth $614,280,000 after acquiring an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’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 transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of 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 given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.10 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $36.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.40. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.72 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a PE ratio of 41.97, 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 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend 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.