NEOS Investment Management LLC Grows Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

NEOS Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 29.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,292 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,728 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 94,334 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,533,000 after purchasing an additional 8,082 shares in the last quarter. Mint Tower Capital Management B.V. bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth $1,273,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 525,502 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $19,943,000 after acquiring an additional 38,164 shares during the last quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $410,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 334,148 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $12,514,000 after purchasing an additional 9,865 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.10 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $36.26 and its 200 day moving average is $37.40. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS 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, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on JNPR. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upped their price objective on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.