MRP Capital Investments LLC Sells 900 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

MRP Capital Investments LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 37.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,510 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 900 shares during the quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $57,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after buying an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after buying an additional 33,016 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,374,000. Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,182,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR opened at $36.15 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.52. The company has a market capitalization of $12.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.72 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Research analysts expect 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 will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on JNPR shares. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays raised their price target 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 downgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks 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.