Geode Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 356,672 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $370,461,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the period. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 32.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Barclays boosted 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. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks 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 value of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 3.7 %

NYSE:JNPR opened at $33.94 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $35.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.31.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share 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%. As a group, analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. 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.