Handelsbanken Fonder AB Reduces Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lessened its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 23.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,800 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 27,400 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of JNPR. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $8,645,000. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 327.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 23,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $868,000 after purchasing an additional 17,758 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 157,338 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $5,902,000 after purchasing an additional 13,030 shares during the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $5,225,000. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 122,669 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,594,000 after acquiring an additional 11,296 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.4%

JNPR stock traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $35.92. The company had a trading volume of 639,105 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,258,274. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $12.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.31. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

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 (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Juniper Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.29 EPS. Analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given 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 is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.00.

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.