Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.13 EPS

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13), Briefing.com reports. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.05% and a net margin of 4.58%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded down $0.24 during trading on Friday, reaching $37.25. 2,436,236 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,808,781. The company has a market capitalization of $12.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $35.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. Barclays cut their price objective on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a report on Monday, July 22nd. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.27.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total transaction of $193,647.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 986,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Juniper Networks news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $1,440,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,059,660. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total transaction of $193,647.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 986,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 145,889 shares of company stock valued at $5,243,973. Corporate insiders own 1.28% 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.