Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Sees Large Volume Increase – Time to Buy?

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Monday . Approximately 3,320,619 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 32% from the previous session’s volume of 4,874,713 shares.The stock last traded at $35.90 and had previously closed at $35.70.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of several analyst reports. 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays boosted 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. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.6 %

The company has a market cap of $11.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.06, a PEG ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly 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, equities analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sather Financial Group Inc grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,126,000 after purchasing an additional 38,936 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,406,000 after purchasing an additional 21,651 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,374,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.