Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,620,000 shares, a decline of 6.2% from the March 15th total of 13,460,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days. Approximately 3.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNPR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.27.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total transaction of $3,645,610.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 98,530 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $3,645,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 73,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,726,308. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rami Rahim sold 5,556 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.10, for a total value of $206,127.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 829,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,770,962.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 216,302 shares of company stock worth $8,005,602. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Juniper Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $55,000. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 18.3% in the first quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 11,792 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $437,000 after buying an additional 1,825 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 56,632 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,099,000 after buying an additional 784 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.2% in the first quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 163,269 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,051,000 after buying an additional 6,507 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 22.1% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $164,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:JNPR traded down $0.09 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $36.43. The stock had a trading volume of 2,384,031 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,940,357. Juniper Networks has a fifty-two week low of $24.87 and a fifty-two week high of $38.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.38. The stock has a market cap of $11.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.34, a PEG ratio of 7.48 and a beta of 0.98.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.63%.

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.