Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Short Interest Update

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,290,000 shares, a decrease of 15.1% from the February 28th total of 8,590,000 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 3,820,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 30.1% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,224 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Juniper Networks by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,413 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,182 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 8,420 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $315,000 after buying an additional 513 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock traded down $0.69 during trading on Thursday, hitting $35.38. 1,830,264 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,257,308. 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 stock has a market cap of $11.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $33.72 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.35.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its earnings results 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%. Equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

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.