State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Increases Stock Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 10.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 122,669 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,296 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $4,594,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 839 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Juniper Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $76,000. Finally, Quarry LP raised its holdings in Juniper Networks by 89.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,922 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on JNPR shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Juniper Networks stock opened at $36.03 on Thursday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. 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 company’s 50 day moving average is $37.25 and its 200 day moving average is $37.92. The company has a market cap of $11.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Juniper Networks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is 102.33%.

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.