Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Downgraded to “Buy” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock opened at $36.01 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.75. The stock has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 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.

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%. Research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $602,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $9,019,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $1,872,000. Alpine Global Management LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC now owns 151,564 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,676,000 after acquiring an additional 51,564 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,941,105 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $147,594,000 after acquiring an additional 311,836 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.