Signaturefd LLC Increases Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,761 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,024 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $366,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 84.7% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price objective 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. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note 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 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.15 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.03, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

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.