Is JNPR Stock A Buy or Sell?

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 887 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of December 31st. In this article we look at what those investors think of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR).

Is JNPR stock a buy? Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 41. JNPR has seen an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with JNPR holdings at the end of September. Our calculations also showed that JNPR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 124 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 13% through November 17th. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Ric Dillon of Diamond Hill Capital

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the CBD market is growing at a 33% annualized rate, so we are taking a closer look at this under-the-radar hemp stock. We go through lists like the 10 best biotech stocks under $10 to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. With all of this in mind we’re going to check out the fresh hedge fund action regarding Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR).

Do Hedge Funds Think JNPR Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 3% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in JNPR over the last 22 quarters. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Arrowstreet Capital held the most valuable stake in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR), which was worth $84.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $75.5 million worth of shares. Pzena Investment Management, D E Shaw, and Diamond Hill Capital were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Fairpointe Capital allocated the biggest weight to Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR), around 3.67% of its 13F portfolio. Oribel Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.61 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to JNPR.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) headfirst. Oribel Capital Management, managed by Mikal Patel, assembled the most outsized position in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR). Oribel Capital Management had $4.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group also initiated a $2.8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JNPR investors: Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, Jinghua Yan’s TwinBeech Capital, and Minhua Zhang’s Weld Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR). We will take a look at Cenovus Energy Inc (NYSE:CVE), Skillz Inc. (NYSE:SKLZ), InVitae Corporation (NYSE:NVTA), Bausch Health Companies (NYSE:BHC), US Foods Holding Corp. (NYSE:USFD), Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW), and Allakos Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLK). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to JNPR’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 30.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1355 million. That figure was $414 million in JNPR’s case. US Foods Holding Corp. (NYSE:USFD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Allakos Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLK) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for JNPR is 59. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.2% in 2021 through April 12th and still beat the market by 1.5 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on JNPR as the stock returned 14.3% since the end of Q4 (through 4/12) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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