Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average is $37.30 and its 200 day moving average is $37.99. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Research analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 102.33%.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 60.3% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Gould Capital LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.9% during the third quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 29,298 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,142,000 after buying an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $184,000 after buying an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.2% during the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 47,639 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,857,000 after buying an additional 580 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.