Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Equities researchers at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research note issued on Thursday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley raised Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.55.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.7 %

Juniper Networks stock opened at $34.71 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.54, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $36.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.78. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, research analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total value of $190,262.94. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total value of $190,262.94. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 36,061 shares in the company, valued at $1,326,323.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $205,071.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 840,518 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,023,519.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602 over the last three months. 1.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 4.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 46,266 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,286,000 after buying an additional 2,134 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 2,096.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,212,000 after purchasing an additional 431,855 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 71.8% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 324,954 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,030,000 after purchasing an additional 135,823 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 112.1% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 181,032 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,031,000 after purchasing an additional 95,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 37.2% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 1,657,664 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,066,000 after purchasing an additional 449,575 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.