Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Trims Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. decreased its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 37.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 29,236 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 17,240 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,095,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 24.8% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 165,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,200,000 after acquiring an additional 32,877 shares during the period. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,131,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 9,761 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 52,174 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after acquiring an additional 7,741 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 209.3% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 85,977 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,220,000 after acquiring an additional 58,178 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.07 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $12.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.94, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $36.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.50. 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 (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the 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 owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.