Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Sold by Bank of America Corp DE

Bank of America Corp DE trimmed its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 35.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 362,580 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 199,353 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned 0.11% of Juniper Networks worth $13,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% in the fourth 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. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 139.5% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note 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. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of JNPR traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $36.06. The stock had a trading volume of 1,895,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,271,279. The company has a market cap of $12.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.93, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $35.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.38. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Juniper Networks's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors 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 yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 83.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.