Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Purchases 2,453 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 7.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,453 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,048,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,989,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,139,088,000 after purchasing an additional 325,418 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,982,734 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $166,260,000 after purchasing an additional 219,860 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,709,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $158,655,000 after purchasing an additional 502,673 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,047,880 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $112,491,000 after purchasing an additional 176,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,407,278 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $94,688,000 after acquiring an additional 181,174 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $3,645,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $205,071.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 840,518 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,023,519.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $3,645,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,726,308. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on JNPR. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley raised Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.27.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:JNPR opened at $34.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $38.04. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $36.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.73.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.63%.

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.