Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.22

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the network equipment provider on Monday, June 24th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd.

Juniper Networks has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. Juniper Networks has a dividend payout ratio of 35.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Juniper Networks to earn $1.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.3%.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR stock traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $34.71. The stock had a trading volume of 4,677,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,295,185. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $38.04. The firm has a market cap of $11.28 billion, a PE ratio of 50.31, a P/E/G ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.07% and a net margin of 4.19%. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.10, for a total value of $206,127.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 829,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,770,962.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.10, for a total value of $206,127.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 829,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,770,962.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at $2,726,308. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JNPR. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a 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 target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven 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 a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.55.

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.