State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Grows Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 122,669 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,296 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $4,594,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. CWM LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 29.7% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,471 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $252,000 after purchasing an additional 1,482 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,929 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $816,000 after purchasing an additional 2,140 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 162.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,111 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $150,000 after buying an additional 2,543 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth about $213,000. Finally, Axecap Investments LLC bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at about $1,996,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.03 on Thursday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.92. 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 has a market cap of $11.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.87.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued 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 expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on JNPR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target 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. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

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.