Citigroup Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR)

Citigroup reissued their neutral rating on shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) in a research note published on Monday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $40.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on JNPR. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Argus raised shares of Juniper Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Juniper Networks in a report on Monday, September 16th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $36.67.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.1 %

JNPR stock opened at $38.82 on Monday. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $39.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $12.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.26, a PEG ratio of 11.28 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.81.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 28,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.53, for a total value of $1,047,278.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 56,107 shares in the company, valued at $2,049,588.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,126,775 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,212,417,000 after acquiring an additional 137,652 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Juniper Networks by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,230,251 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $390,028,000 after purchasing an additional 495,037 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 14,314.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,832,105 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $176,179,000 after purchasing an additional 4,798,583 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,646,833 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $107,509,000 after purchasing an additional 219,410 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,157,579 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $115,125,000 after purchasing an additional 114,795 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.