State of Michigan Retirement System Purchases 900 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

State of Michigan Retirement System raised its stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 105,624 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $3,914,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $55,000. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 18.3% in the first quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 11,792 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 1,825 shares during the period. Czech National Bank increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 56,632 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,099,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.2% in the first quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 163,269 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,051,000 after acquiring an additional 6,507 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 22.1% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $164,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.83, for a total value of $193,480.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 997,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,755,951.42. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total value of $517,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.83, for a total transaction of $193,480.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 997,874 shares in the company, valued at $34,755,951.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 82,775 shares of company stock valued at $2,942,563. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JNPR. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, June 28th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.57 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.87 and a 52-week high of $38.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $35.15 and a 200 day moving average of $35.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $11.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.00, a P/E/G ratio of 9.50 and a beta of 0.95.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The network equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 4.19%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 127.54%.

Juniper Networks Company Profile

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.