Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P Boosts Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 30.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 306,700 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 71,700 shares during the period. Juniper Networks comprises 2.8% of Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $11,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,620,269,000 after acquiring an additional 599,214 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,540,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $371,269,000 after purchasing an additional 417,050 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $262,618,000. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.1% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Argus lowered shares of 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 and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.3 %

JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 42.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $36.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.43.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

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.