Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. Sells 17,567 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 23.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 58,323 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 17,567 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $2,184,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Juniper Networks by 25.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after buying an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,374,000. Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,182,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $614,280,000 after purchasing an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total transaction of $1,115,827.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at $3,413,651.42. This trade represents a 24.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.28% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Up 0.2 %

JNPR opened at $36.15 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $36.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.52. 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 firm has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. 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 note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.80.

Juniper Networks 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.