Royal Bank of Canada Grows Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 130.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 574,902 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 325,325 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.17% of Juniper Networks worth $21,529,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management acquired a new position in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth $1,374,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 67.6% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 6,892 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $269,000 after acquiring an additional 2,781 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $8,645,000. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $3,302,000 after acquiring an additional 9,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,412,000 after acquiring an additional 7,668 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNPR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price 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. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.4%

JNPR traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $35.82. The stock had a trading volume of 206,127 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,261,953. The stock's 50 day moving average is $35.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.36. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $33.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $11.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. 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 released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Juniper Networks's revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 83.81%.

Juniper Networks Profile

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.