Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Purchased by APG Asset Management N.V.

APG Asset Management N.V. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1,216.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 182,600 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 168,734 shares during the quarter. APG Asset Management N.V.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $6,604,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 91.9% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $34.90 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a PE ratio of 40.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.10. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 102.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JNPR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.