Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) saw a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,590,000 shares, a decrease of 29.5% from the February 13th total of 12,180,000 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,690,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of JNPR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,620,269,000 after purchasing an additional 599,214 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,593,000 after purchasing an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $370,461,000 after purchasing an additional 356,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $262,618,000. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE JNPR traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $35.71. The company had a trading volume of 3,932,807 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,108,827. The business’s 50-day moving average is $36.72 and its 200-day moving average is $37.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market cap of $11.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks has a 52 week low of $33.72 and a 52 week high of $39.79.

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

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

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.