Bank of New York Mellon Corp Boosts Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,134,795 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 40,231 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $117,398,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sather Financial Group Inc increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,126,000 after purchasing an additional 38,936 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 5.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,529 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $17,406,000 after purchasing an additional 21,651 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter worth $1,374,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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 value of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.16 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $37.07 and a 200 day moving average of $37.80. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 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 research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on JNPR shares. 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 cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

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.