Vanguard Group Inc. Has $1.62 Billion Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Juniper Networks worth $1,620,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of JNPR. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $4,459,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 24.8% during the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 165,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,200,000 after acquiring an additional 32,877 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,131,000. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 9,761 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 52,174 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,954,000 after purchasing an additional 7,741 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a 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 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.43. The stock has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 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 forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.