ProShare Advisors LLC Purchases 7,449 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 11.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 73,256 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,449 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $2,743,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on JNPR shares. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock 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 research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

Shares of JNPR traded up $0.02 on Monday, reaching $35.99. 1,783,762 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,276,804. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $35.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.41. The stock has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a PE ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.42 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion during 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%. The business's revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 83.81%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.37% of the company's stock.

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.