StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Investment analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on JNPR. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.27.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.15 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $36.97 and its 200-day moving average is $32.43. Juniper Networks has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The firm has a market cap of $11.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.46 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Juniper Networks news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total value of $190,262.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,326,323.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 73,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 92.1% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 974 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 467 shares during the period. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 74.1% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.