Sterling Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 57.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,303 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,048 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $723,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,620,269,000 after buying an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,593,000 after purchasing an additional 2,167,567 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $370,461,000 after purchasing an additional 356,672 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $262,618,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,525,290 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $244,372,000 after purchasing an additional 987,431 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’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 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE JNPR opened at $34.51 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.02. 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 company has a market cap of $11.50 billion, a PE ratio of 40.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised 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 report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus 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.