Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Purchases 192,678 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 52.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 560,159 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 192,678 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned 0.17% of Juniper Networks worth $20,978,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 3.7 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $33.94 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.46, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.72 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $35.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.29.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research 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, March 28th. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.