Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Receives $34.55 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the twelve brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $34.55.

A number of brokerages have commented on JNPR. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.7 %

Juniper Networks stock traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $34.71. 4,677,184 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,295,185. The company has a market cap of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.31, a P/E/G ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks has a twelve month low of $24.87 and a twelve month high of $38.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a fifty day moving average of $36.79 and a 200-day moving average of $32.83.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.19% and a return on equity of 10.07%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.41 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks's payout ratio is currently 127.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.10, for a total transaction of $206,127.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 829,406 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,770,962.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.10, for a total value of $206,127.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 829,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,770,962.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock valued at $8,005,602. Insiders own 1.29% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $136,778,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 11,418.1% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,829,071 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $83,401,000 after purchasing an additional 2,804,509 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 276.7% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,257,447 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $34,944,000 after purchasing an additional 923,680 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at about $20,615,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 487.6% in the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 845,795 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $23,505,000 after purchasing an additional 701,856 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company's stock.

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.