State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Trims Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury trimmed its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,542 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,276 shares during the quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,518,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Juniper Networks by 47.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,182 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $184,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 605 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JNPR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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 stock was 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock opened at $36.06 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $12.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.93, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $35.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.77.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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