Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Citigroup

Citigroup reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research report report published on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $40.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock.

JNPR has been the subject of several other reports. StockNews.com began coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Monday, September 16th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $36.67.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:JNPR opened at $38.82 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market cap of $12.62 billion, a PE ratio of 56.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.28 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average of $38.46 and a 200 day moving average of $36.81. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $24.87 and a 1-year high of $39.13.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. Juniper Networks’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.50, for a total transaction of $1,460,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 124,776 shares in the company, valued at $4,554,324. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 2,069.4% during the second quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 781 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.