Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Upgraded at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) from an in-line rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $40.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on JNPR. Barclays reduced their target price on Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR stock opened at $35.99 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.70 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.00. Juniper Networks has a 52-week low of $33.72 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly 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 7.41% and a net margin of 4.97%. Equities research analysts expect that Juniper Networks will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Juniper Networks by 60.3% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $61,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 84.7% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Juniper Networks in the third quarter valued at $76,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the 4th 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. Hedge funds and other 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.