Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Trims Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 94.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,998 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 152,657 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in JNPR. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 139.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,794 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on JNPR. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR traded down $0.02 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $36.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,699,287 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,224,834. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.42 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $12.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. The company's fifty day moving average price is $35.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.69.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. The business's revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is 83.81%.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.28% 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.