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Sunnyvale, California-based Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. With a market cap of $12.6 billion, Juniper offers routing, switching, and security products, AI-driven solutions, and software services to the cloud, service provider, and enterprise markets.
Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as "large-cap stocks," Juniper fits right into that category, with its market cap exceeding this threshold, reflecting its substantial size, influence, and dominance in the communication equipment industry. Its innovative solutions cater to the evolving needs of modern network infrastructures.
Juniper touched its 52-week high of $39.13 on Sep. 19 and is now trading marginally below that peak. JNPR gained 8.8% over the past three months, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite’s ($NASX) 2.2% gains during the same time frame.
Over the longer term, JNPR surged 31.7% in 2024 and 41.1% over the past 52 weeks, outperforming NASX’s 21.2% gains on a YTD basis and 39.2% returns over the past year.
To confirm the bullish trend, JNPR has been trading above its 200-day moving average since mid-December 2023 and above its 50-day moving average since mid-November 2023 with slight fluctuations.
Shares of Juniper experienced a marginal decline in the trading session after the release of its Q2 earnings on Jul. 25. Although the company reported a growth in net income to $34.1 million from the year-ago quarter’s net income of $24.4 million, its adjusted EPS of $0.16 missed the consensus estimates by 33.3%. Moreover, its topline declined by 16.8%, falling to $1.2 billion compared to the year-ago quarter, primarily due to sluggish demand for wide-area networking solutions.
Additionally, Juniper has decreased its share repurchase activity in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in the previous year. Additionally, its overall cash balance and cash flow from operations have observed a substantial decline, raising concerns about its ability to return value to the shareholders.
Juniper’s competitor, Ubiquiti Inc. (UI), gained 58.4% over the past year and 58% in 2024, outperforming JNPR.
Among the 13 analysts covering the JNPR stock, the consensus rating is a “Hold.” JNPR is trading above its mean price target of $38.55 and its Street-high target of $40 suggests a potential upside of 3% from current price levels.
On the date of publication, Aditya Sarawgi did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
