Investors Buy Large Volume of Juniper Networks Call Options (NYSE:JNPR)

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPRGet Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders purchased 15,246 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 169% compared to the average volume of 5,677 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Juniper Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of JNPR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $262,618,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Juniper Networks in the 1st quarter valued at $204,166,000. FIL Ltd raised its position in Juniper Networks by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 12,752,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,593,000 after buying an additional 2,167,567 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in Juniper Networks by 60.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,157,158 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $159,510,000 after buying an additional 1,559,884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in Juniper Networks by 52.9% in the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 3,888,034 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $140,430,000 after buying an additional 1,345,129 shares during the last quarter. 91.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNPR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on Juniper Networks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Juniper Networks in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.00.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on JNPR

Juniper Networks Price Performance

Shares of JNPR opened at $36.52 on Wednesday. Juniper Networks has a 12-month low of $33.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The business’s fifty day moving average is $35.88 and its 200 day moving average is $36.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market cap of $12.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.78.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPRGet Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The network equipment provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.02. Juniper Networks had a return on equity of 8.71% and a net margin of 6.78%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. Juniper Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Juniper Networks will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Juniper Networks’s payout ratio is currently 83.81%.

About Juniper Networks

(Get Free Report)

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.

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