Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Shares Purchased by Hudson Bay Capital Management LP

Hudson Bay Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 70.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,811,005 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,158,713 shares during the period. Juniper Networks makes up about 0.4% of Hudson Bay Capital Management LP's portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP owned approximately 0.85% of Juniper Networks worth $105,272,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JNPR has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Argus downgraded Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR stock traded down $0.26 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $36.00. 941,057 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,250,835. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $35.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.57. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. 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 (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 83.81%.

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.