StockNews.com Downgrades Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) to Buy

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on JNPR. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.80.

Juniper Networks Price Performance

JNPR opened at $36.22 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.43. Juniper Networks has a 12-month low of $33.72 and a 12-month 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 5.67%. Research analysts predict that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Juniper Networks

In other Juniper Networks news, COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the business’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 approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Juniper Networks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,668 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $1,374,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,394 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 660 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth $1,182,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,758,844 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $614,280,000 after buying an additional 574,418 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.