Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Bought by Sterling Capital Management LLC

Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 57.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,303 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,048 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in JNPR. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on JNPR shares. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $34.51 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.13, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.02. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

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.