Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Increases Stock Holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR - Free Report) by 116.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 92,811 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 49,930 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board's holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $2,736,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 46,266 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,286,000 after acquiring an additional 2,134 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,821,292 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $83,172,000 after acquiring an additional 54,735 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 2,096.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 452,455 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $13,212,000 after acquiring an additional 431,855 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 71.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 324,954 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $9,030,000 after acquiring an additional 135,823 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 43.9% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 520,932 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $15,357,000 after acquiring an additional 158,913 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Sunday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $34.55.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

NYSE JNPR traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $34.59. 2,323,993 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,363,513. The business's fifty day moving average price is $35.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.13, a P/E/G ratio of 9.01 and a beta of 0.98. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.87 and a 52 week high of $38.04.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 4.19%. Equities research analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.08 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $207,923.65. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,008,479 shares of the company's stock, valued at $37,747,368.97. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,330 shares of company stock worth $1,732,206 over the last three months. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.