IFM Investors Pty Ltd Purchases 397 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 73,686 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 397 shares during the quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $2,731,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% during the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 74.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE JNPR traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $34.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,677,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,295,185. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $36.79 and a 200 day moving average of $32.78. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.31, a PEG ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.07% and a net margin of 4.19%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 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 this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Robert Mobassaly sold 5,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.78, for a total transaction of $190,262.94. Following the completion of 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.53, for a total value of $208,479.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,019,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,265,175.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JNPR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.55.

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.