Barclays Cuts Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Price Target to $40.00

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) had its price target cut by Barclays from $41.00 to $40.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on JNPR. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Monday, July 22nd. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $36.25.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JNPR opened at $37.64 on Friday. Juniper Networks has a 1 year low of $24.87 and a 1 year high of $38.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The company’s 50-day moving average is $36.05 and its 200 day moving average is $36.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.55, a P/E/G ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 0.95.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 8.02%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. Juniper Networks’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.34%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.86, for a total transaction of $193,647.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 986,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,398,593.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 145,889 shares of company stock worth $5,243,973. Corporate insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 2.0% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 54,735 shares during the period. Eisler Capital UK Ltd. bought a new position in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $816,000. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Juniper Networks by 2,772.3% in the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 457,074 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $16,939,000 after acquiring an additional 441,161 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position in Juniper Networks by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 178,219 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,254,000 after acquiring an additional 29,905 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Juniper Networks by 43.9% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 520,932 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $15,357,000 after acquiring an additional 158,913 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.