Nordea Investment Management AB Raises Stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 2,096.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 431,855 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB owned 0.14% of Juniper Networks worth $13,212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth $95,829,000. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 34,426,578 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,184,963,000 after acquiring an additional 2,776,885 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,412,994 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $514,219,000 after acquiring an additional 1,613,651 shares during the last quarter. Man Group plc boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 227.6% during the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 1,718,992 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $54,939,000 after acquiring an additional 1,194,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 144.6% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,840,995 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $63,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.79% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on JNPR. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective 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. KeyCorp reiterated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Saturday, March 16th. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $34.58.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of Juniper Networks stock traded up $0.12 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $36.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,452,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,617,700. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $24.87 and a one year high of $38.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.25. The stock has a market cap of $11.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.88, a P/E/G ratio of 7.51 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 5.57%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.41 billion. On average, analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.38%. Juniper Networks's dividend payout ratio is presently 92.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $207,923.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,008,479 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $37,747,368.97. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 79,267 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.97, for a total value of $2,930,500.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,337 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,563,388.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $207,923.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,008,479 shares of the company's stock, valued at $37,747,368.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,800 shares of company stock valued at $8,122,949. Company insiders own 1.29% 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.