Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Makes New Investment in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 50,000 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,872,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of JNPR. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 91.9% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 139.5% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in 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 worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on JNPR shares. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. 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 report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR traded down $0.04 on Friday, reaching $35.91. The company had a trading volume of 3,476,348 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,254,937. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.33. The company has a market cap of $12.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.42 and a 52-week high of $39.79.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Juniper Networks's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $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 dividend payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

Juniper Networks Company 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.