Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Short Interest Update

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,590,000 shares, a decrease of 29.5% from the February 13th total of 12,180,000 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded up $0.36 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $36.12. 7,409,363 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,096,391. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.56. 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 company has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.99, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

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 transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, 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 the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $262,618,000. FIL Ltd grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,593,000 after buying an additional 2,167,567 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares during the last quarter. Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,413,000. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 70.1% during the 4th quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 2,811,005 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $105,272,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,713 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on JNPR shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

About Juniper Networks

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.