Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.67.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Monday, September 16th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total value of $1,047,278.57. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 56,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,049,588.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 2,069.4% in the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 781 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares during the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $38.98 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $38.52 and a 200-day moving average of $36.84. The firm has a market cap of $12.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.28 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. Analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

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.