Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $38.65, but opened at $36.21. Juniper Networks shares last traded at $36.29, with a volume of 2,387,644 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays cut their price objective on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.25.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 5.9 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a PE ratio of 47.88, a PEG ratio of 8.57 and a beta of 0.88.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is presently 115.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sather Financial Group Inc lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 17.6% during the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,126,000 after purchasing an additional 38,936 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 5.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $17,406,000 after purchasing an additional 21,651 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 1,885.0% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 497,430 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $19,390,000 after purchasing an additional 472,370 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,374,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.