E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Takes Position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 6,703 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNPR. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Juniper Networks by 60.3% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. 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 acquiring an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter worth $76,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Juniper Networks by 41.5% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,099 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on JNPR shares. Barclays raised their price target on Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of JNPR stock opened at $36.07 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.70. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.72 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $12.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.94, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, research analysts predict 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 given 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 is Monday, March 3rd. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is 102.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of Juniper Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.28% 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.