Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Buys Shares of 36,800 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 36,800 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,364,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 51.3% in the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on Juniper Networks from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com started coverage on Juniper Networks in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $37.81. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,134,794 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,702,146. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $36.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.36. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.87 and a 52 week high of $38.04. The stock has a market cap of $12.29 billion, a PE ratio of 54.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.02% and a net margin of 4.58%. Juniper Networks’s revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 986,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 145,889 shares of company stock valued at $5,243,973. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks 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.