Two Sigma Advisers LP Buys 327,100 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 2,195.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 342,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 327,100 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP owned approximately 0.10% of Juniper Networks worth $12,808,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,413 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,182 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 8,420 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV raised its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 41,152 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,544,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus lowered shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Five equities 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Insider Transactions at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the 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. This represents a 24.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.37% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE JNPR opened at $35.96 on Friday. 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 market cap of $12.02 billion, a PE ratio of 41.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $35.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.47. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. Juniper Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

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.