Rafferty Asset Management LLC Boosts Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 131,111 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,205 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $4,910,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 83,254 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,118,000 after acquiring an additional 8,118 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $207,000. Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,349,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 123.8% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 226,448 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,480,000 after acquiring an additional 125,278 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,374,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks 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 approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.08 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $12.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $35.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.51.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Juniper Networks’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNPR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

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.