Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 2,598 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 38,679 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,598 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $1,449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,540,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $371,269,000 after buying an additional 417,050 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,134,795 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $117,398,000 after buying an additional 40,231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,984,544 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $111,771,000 after buying an additional 27,227 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:JNPR opened at $35.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.59. 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 $11.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 102.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

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.