Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Has $382,000 Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 86.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,206 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,739 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $382,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Gould Capital LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 1.9% during the third quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 29,298 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $184,000 after buying an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.2% in the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 47,639 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,857,000 after buying an additional 580 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Juniper Networks by 32.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on JNPR. 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was 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 owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.00 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $36.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.54. 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 market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 41.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. As a group, analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.