Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Barclays Analyst Says

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) had its price target hoisted by research analysts at Barclays from $39.00 to $40.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 9.26% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on JNPR. Evercore ISI raised 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. StockNews.com upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Argus lowered Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Juniper Networks Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:JNPR opened at $36.61 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $12.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.82. Juniper Networks has a one year low of $33.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.69.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 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 approximately $3,413,651.42. The trade was a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,264,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,620,269,000 after buying an additional 599,214 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its position in Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,593,000 after acquiring an additional 2,167,567 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Juniper Networks by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,897,002 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $370,461,000 after acquiring an additional 356,672 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $262,618,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Juniper Networks by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,525,290 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $244,372,000 after purchasing an additional 987,431 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the company’s stock.

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.