Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Juniper Networks Put Options (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 11,107 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 101% compared to the typical volume of 5,530 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 327.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 23,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $868,000 after buying an additional 17,758 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $8,645,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $1,926,000. Finally, Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,795 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $210,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.5%

JNPR stock traded up $0.19 during trading on Friday, hitting $36.04. The company had a trading volume of 4,777,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,274,108. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $35.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.31. Juniper Networks has a 12 month low of $33.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $12.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.32, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.78.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 6.78% and a return on equity of 8.71%. Juniper Networks's revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 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.