Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,590,000 shares, a decrease of 29.5% from the February 13th total of 12,180,000 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 3,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the 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 directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the 4th 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 period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in 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 buying an additional 574,418 shares during the period. FIL Ltd boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,593,000 after purchasing an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $370,461,000 after acquiring an additional 356,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $262,618,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of a number of research reports. 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 report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities 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, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $36.01. The stock had a trading volume of 628,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,113,058. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $36.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.56. The company has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.87, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. 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 has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 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.