StockNews.com Upgrades Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) to Strong-Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of JNPR traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $36.17. The stock had a trading volume of 3,082,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,989,265. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 0.87. Juniper Networks has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sather Financial Group Inc grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $10,126,000 after purchasing an additional 38,936 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $17,406,000 after purchasing an additional 21,651 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,374,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

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.