Gabelli Funds LLC Has $24.40 Million Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 7.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 651,623 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 45,169 shares during the quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC owned 0.20% of Juniper Networks worth $24,403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,620,269,000 after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $477,593,000 after buying an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $370,461,000 after acquiring an additional 356,672 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at about $262,618,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,525,290 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $244,372,000 after acquiring an additional 987,431 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Juniper Networks stock traded down $0.56 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $33.77. 1,001,007 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,265,915. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $35.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.93. The company has a market cap of $11.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.84. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Equities analysts expect that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.