Arizona State Retirement System Grows Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,606 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,497 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,580,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 60.3% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 84.7% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $76,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JNPR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. 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 report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE JNPR opened at $36.07 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $12.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.94, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $36.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.69. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.72 and a 12 month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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