Analysts Set Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Price Target at $36.25

Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.25.

JNPR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price target on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.17, for a total value of $195,369.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 981,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,509,120.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 134,779 shares of company stock worth $4,856,845. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,126,775 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,212,417,000 after acquiring an additional 137,652 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,230,251 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $390,028,000 after purchasing an additional 495,037 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $136,778,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,646,833 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $107,509,000 after purchasing an additional 219,410 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,157,579 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $115,125,000 after purchasing an additional 114,795 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock opened at $38.57 on Monday. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $24.87 and a 1 year high of $38.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.69. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $36.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.41. The firm has a market cap of $12.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.90, a PEG ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 0.95.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.28%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

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.