The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE:JNPR). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 2.22% to 38.32 million shares with purchase of 0.83 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 11.83% valued currently at $1.18 billion. In addition, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings by 0.11 million to 7.39 million shares. And Legal & General Investment Manage has lifted its position by 6.16% or 0.34 million shares – to 5.91 million shares.
With over 2.99 million Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $30.80 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $92.06 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 7.35% and its price on 03/10/23 lost nearly -0.84%. Currently, there are 323.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 320.20M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 21 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for JNPR have a consensus price objective of $36.07. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $43.00 and a low of $29.00. The average price target is 14.49% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -6.21% over that period. But an upside of 28.37% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $35.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 120 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 47 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,318,569 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 73 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,121,968 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Juniper Networks Inc. are Dodge & Cox Stock Fund, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Dodge & Cox Stock Fund owns 26.48 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $815.18 million. The company sold -1.47 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 8.18% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 80515.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 9.96 million shares valued at over $306.53 million and representing 3.07% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 17816.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 7.52 million shares at a value of $231.46 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.32% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) opened at $31.00, down -$0.06 from a prior closing price of $31.06. However, the script later moved the day high at 31.18, down -0.84%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.39% and -3.66% over the past three months. JNPR shares are trading -3.63% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -8.58% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $25.18 and touched a high of $38.14 over the same period. JNPR has an average intraday trading volume of 3.58 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -1.10%, -2.21%, and 3.45% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) shares accounts for 93.40% of the company’s 323.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 35.78%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 55.73% and 3.87% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $10.06B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.94. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 21.54, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.43. The company has a PEG of 1.35 and a Quick Ratio of 1.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.36. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.87% over the week and 1.64% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) will achieve an EPS of $0.43 for the current quarter, $0.51 for the next quarter and $2.55 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.37 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.47. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.31 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 87.60%, and 11.85% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 15.95% over the next five years, compared to -1.60% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 21 brokerage firm advisors rate Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.70. Specifically, 7 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 21 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Raymond James coverage for the Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) stock in a research note released on October 21, 2022 offered a Strong Buy rating with a price target of $37. Piper Sandler was of a view on October 18, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while BofA Securities gave the stock Underperform rating on July 20, 2022, issuing a price target of $40- $32. JP Morgan on their part issued Overweight rating on July 14, 2022.
