Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Boosts Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 71.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 126,094 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 52,713 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $4,722,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in JNPR. Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 651,623 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $24,403,000 after acquiring an additional 45,169 shares during the period. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 55,225 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,068,000 after buying an additional 9,251 shares in the last quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $124,000. Mariner LLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 29,576 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,875 shares during the period. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,182 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR traded up $0.45 on Tuesday, hitting $34.49. 302,743 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,710,781. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $35.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.90. The stock has a market cap of $11.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.10, a P/E/G 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 fifty-two week low of $33.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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 2.55%. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were 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 owns 94,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.