Alpine Global Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Alpine Global Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 51.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 151,564 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 51,564 shares during the period. Juniper Networks accounts for 1.2% of Alpine Global Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Alpine Global Management LLC's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $5,676,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the topic of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $35.96 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 firm's 50-day moving average is $35.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.47. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $12.02 billion, a PE ratio of 41.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. Juniper Networks's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.

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