BNP Paribas Financial Markets Raises Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 26.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 640,329 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 132,981 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $23,980,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after acquiring an additional 7,668 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $577,000 after buying an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,302,000 after buying an additional 9,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $17,406,000 after buying an additional 21,651 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI raised 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 note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $12.14 billion, a PE ratio of 42.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.64.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.42%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.81%.

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.