Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Grows Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 36.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,361,572 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 632,423 shares during the quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned about 0.71% of Juniper Networks worth $88,441,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MGO One Seven LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $354,000. Alpine Global Management LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 51.6% during the 4th quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC now owns 151,564 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,676,000 after purchasing an additional 51,564 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 42.1% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,542,905 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $95,170,000 after purchasing an additional 753,479 shares in the last quarter. ClearAlpha Technologies LP bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth about $5,337,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 87,533 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,278,000 after buying an additional 2,007 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Juniper Networks stock opened at $35.34 on Thursday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $11.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.09, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share 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 expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upped their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.