Handelsbanken Fonder AB Sells 27,400 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB cut its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 23.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,800 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 27,400 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 1.2% in the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 65,903 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,385,000 after buying an additional 754 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the first quarter worth $213,000. Kwmg LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 1.7% in the first quarter. Kwmg LLC now owns 162,466 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,880,000 after buying an additional 2,745 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.9% during the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 76,046 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,752,000 after purchasing an additional 4,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 10.5% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 676,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $24,467,000 after purchasing an additional 64,469 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JNPR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their target price on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $35.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.78. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $35.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.31.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

Juniper Networks 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.