Allstate Corp Purchases Shares of 7,377 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Allstate Corp acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 7,377 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $276,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after acquiring an additional 574,418 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,302,000 after purchasing an additional 9,548 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2 %

Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.08 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.95, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.35.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNPR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Evercore ISI raised 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. Barclays increased their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

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.