Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $35.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.01 billion, a PE ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.78. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $35.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.81%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,620,269,000 after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,593,000 after buying an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $370,461,000 after buying an additional 356,672 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $262,618,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,525,290 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $244,372,000 after buying an additional 987,431 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Company Profile

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.