Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH Acquires Shares of 240,834 Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 240,834 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $9,019,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned about 0.07% of Juniper Networks as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Juniper Networks by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,413 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its position in shares of 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. Wahed Invest LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 8,420 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $315,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 41,152 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,544,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on JNPR. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI upgraded 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. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR stock traded down $0.06 during trading on Monday, hitting $35.87. The company had a trading volume of 1,769,758 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,248,988. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $35.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 41.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. The company's revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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

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.