Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P Increases Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 30.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 306,700 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,700 shares during the quarter. Juniper Networks comprises approximately 2.8% of Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P owned about 0.09% of Juniper Networks worth $11,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 38,488 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,500,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 80.2% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 17,324 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $675,000 after purchasing an additional 7,709 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 6.2% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 36,081 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,406,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.3% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 815,384 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,759,000 after buying an additional 33,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 150.8% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 35,821 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,396,000 after buying an additional 21,538 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on JNPR. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 42.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.43. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. On average, equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.