Analysts Set Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Target Price at $40.00

Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) have earned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the six brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on JNPR. Wall Street Zen raised Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE JNPR traded down $0.08 on Thursday, reaching $36.83. The company had a trading volume of 4,498,214 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,256,329. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.31 billion, a PE ratio of 35.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.78. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $33.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.02 and a 200-day moving average of $36.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.71% and a net margin of 6.78%. Juniper Networks's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 83.81%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $262,618,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $204,166,000. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $477,593,000 after acquiring an additional 2,167,567 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.1% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $159,510,000 after acquiring an additional 1,559,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 52.9% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 3,888,034 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $140,430,000 after acquiring an additional 1,345,129 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.