Banco BTG Pactual S.A. Makes New Investment in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Banco BTG Pactual S.A. purchased a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 10,840 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $410,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the 4th 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. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $76,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. 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. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $36.11 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day moving average is $36.41 and its 200-day moving average is $37.45.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

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

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.