Securian Asset Management Inc. Sells 324 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)

Securian Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,794 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 324 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Juniper Networks were worth $666,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Sather Financial Group Inc increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 259,786 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,126,000 after purchasing an additional 38,936 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 25.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 37,696 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,957,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $115,276,000 after purchasing an additional 33,016 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter worth $1,374,000. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth $1,182,000. Institutional investors own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Juniper Networks Price Performance

NYSE JNPR opened at $35.71 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.90 billion, a PE ratio of 41.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $36.72 and its 200 day moving average is $37.58. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.72 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last released 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 net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. Sell-side analysts predict that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.46%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 102.33%.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 94,771 shares of the company’s stock, 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.