Manoj Leelanivas Sells 30,978 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Stock

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.16 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $33.72 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.05, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87.

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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 11.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,929 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $816,000 after buying an additional 2,140 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Juniper Networks in the third quarter worth about $213,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 117.0% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 33,663 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,311,000 after buying an additional 18,147 shares during the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.2% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 67,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,612,000 after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 22.2% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,996 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $312,000 after buying an additional 1,451 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on JNPR. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note 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 on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

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.