Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after acquiring an additional 7,668 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $577,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,302,000 after acquiring an additional 9,548 shares in the last quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 302,731 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $11,337,000 after acquiring an additional 42,945 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 327.1% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 23,187 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $868,000 after acquiring an additional 17,758 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE JNPR opened at $35.93 on Friday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $35.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.32. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $33.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $12.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.78.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

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.