Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.22 on June 23rd

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the network equipment provider on Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd.

Juniper Networks has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Juniper Networks has a payout ratio of 39.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Juniper Networks to earn $1.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.7%.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.64 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.72. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $12.25 billion, a PE ratio of 42.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. Juniper Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on JNPR. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday. Barclays upped their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.28% 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.