Korea Investment CORP Sells 40,700 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Korea Investment CORP reduced its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 14.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 232,037 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 40,700 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $8,690,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Juniper Networks by 47.8% in 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. Gould Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 29,298 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,142,000 after buying an additional 534 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,913 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $184,000 after buying an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.2% in the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 47,639 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,857,000 after buying an additional 580 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on JNPR. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays increased their target price on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.20 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The business has a 50-day moving average of $36.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.38. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.28% 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.