Woodline Partners LP Invests $21.27 Million in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Woodline Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 567,894 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $21,268,000. Woodline Partners LP owned 0.17% of Juniper Networks at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of JNPR. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Juniper Networks by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $577,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in Juniper Networks by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 88,162 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $3,302,000 after purchasing an additional 9,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sather Financial Group Inc lifted its stake in Juniper Networks by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 302,731 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $11,337,000 after purchasing an additional 42,945 shares during the period. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.37% of the company's stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR stock opened at $36.13 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $12.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.01, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.62 and a 200-day moving average of $36.49.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 83.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JNPR. Barclays increased their target price on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.00.

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.

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