Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 4,739 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 86.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,206 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,739 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $382,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Gould Capital LLC lifted 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 worth $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $184,000 after buying an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 47,639 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,857,000 after buying an additional 580 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $36.00 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $36.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.54. The stock has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JNPR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

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.