Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Acquires 6,507 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp increased its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 4.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 163,269 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,507 shares during the quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp owned approximately 0.05% of Juniper Networks worth $6,051,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 22.1% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $164,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the period. Symmetry Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the first quarter valued at about $211,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $80,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 298.3% during the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 38,524 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 28,852 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 40,250 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 7,836 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR traded up $0.04 on Thursday, hitting $35.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 317,603 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,008,527. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.04. The firm has a market cap of $11.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 0.96. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $38.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Juniper Networks news, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total value of $197,146.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 970,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,428,813.51. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kenneth Bradley Miller sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.47, for a total transaction of $517,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,393,424.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.49, for a total transaction of $197,146.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 970,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,428,813.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,330 shares of company stock worth $1,708,320 in the last three months. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on JNPR. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Argus upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, April 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.00.

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.