Juniper Networks Stock Outlook: Is Wall Street Bullish or Bearish?
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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 $11.9 billion, Juniper offers routing, switching, and security products, AI-driven solutions, and software services to the cloud, service providers, and enterprise markets.
The networking products designer has significantly underperformed the broader market over the past year. JNPR stock has dipped 2.5% over the past 52 weeks and 3.6% on a YTD basis, lagging behind the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) 20.7% surge over the past year and 3.2% gains in 2025.
Zooming in further, JNPR has also lagged behind the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLK) 13.7% gains over the past year and 1.6% returns in 2025.
Despite its recent underperformance, JNPR stock rose 1.2% in the trading session after the release of its Q4 results on Feb. 4. Driven by a slight improvement in product demand and service revenues, Juniper’s overall topline increased by a modest 2.9% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, which missed the Street’s expectations by a small margin. However, due to effective cost management, Juniper’s net income soared 30.3% year-over-year to $162 million, which surpassed the consensus estimates by a notable margin, boosting investor confidence.
For the current fiscal 2025, ending in December, analysts expect Juniper Networks to deliver a 31.7% year-over-year growth in earnings to $1.33 per share. However, the company has a mixed earnings surprise history. While it surpassed the Street’s bottom-line estimates twice over the past four quarters, it missed the expectations on two other occasions by a large margin.
Among the 11 analysts covering the JNPR stock, the consensus rating is a “Hold.” That’s based on one “Strong Buy” and 10 “Hold” recommendations.
This configuration is slightly less bearish than a month ago when one analyst gave a “Moderate Sell” recommendation.
On Feb. 4, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani upgraded JNPR to an “Outperform” rating while setting a price target of $40.
JNPR’s mean price target of $39.90 represents a 10.5% premium to 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.