Elliott Management Nominates Directors to Juniper Networks (JNPR)’s Board

Elliott Associates, led by Paul Singer, revealed in its latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has inked an agreement with Juniper Networks that the latter’s board of directors would nominate each of Kevin Denuccio and Gary Daichendt as directors at the annual general meeting (AGM) of 2014. In addition, Juniper Networks have also agreed to nominate no more than seven incumbent directors for re-election at the AGM. Furthermore, until the expiration of the agreement, the size of the company’s board will not exceed 12 directors.

Elliott Associates, currently holds 31.4 million shares in Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR), a significant increase from 2.59 million shares held at the end of the fourth quarter of last year. The activist stake amasses 6.2% of the company’s stock.

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) is a $13.7 billion market cap designer, developer and marketer of products and services related. Late last month, the leader in network innovation, reported revenue of $4.67 billion for the fiscal year 2013, an increase of 7.0% on the year. For the same period, the company reported earnings per diluted share of $0.86, an increase of 51.0% on the year. The company issued its guidance for the first quarter of 2014, expecting revenue in the range of $1.12 billion to $1.16 billion and earnings per share between $0.27 and $0.30.

As at the end of the fourth quarter 2013, other stakeholders of the company are Barry Rosenstein‘s Jana Partners, which holds 13.43 million shares, followed by Diamond Hill Capital, led by Ric Dillon, with ownership of approximately 5.70 million shares.

Citigroup Inc. currently has a target price of $28.0 on the stock of Juniper Networks, Inc (NYSE:JNPR), recently raising it from $27 and reiterating the ‘Neutral’ rating on the stock. Also, recently, FBR Capital Markets upped the target price of Juniper to $27.0 from $25.0, with a ‘Market Perform’ rating on the stock.

Elliott Associates founded in 1977, together with Elliott International, forms the Elliott Management Corporation. Elliott International Limited, since its inception in 1994, has managed to beat S&P 500 by an average of 5 percentage points per year. Elliott Associates has followed the same trend. The fund’s equity portfolio value totaled $4.41 billion at the end of the fourth quarter 2013, down from $5.44 billion in the third quarter.

Earlier this month, Elliott Management upped its stake in Compuware Corporation (NASDAQ:CPWR), a technology performance company, to 21.0 million shares from 18.67 million held earlier.

Some of the largest investments of the fund as at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013 were in Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) with an exposure of 17.10 million shares and a reported value of $1.42 billion. The fund owns 10.75 million shares in NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP), which is equivalent to a reported value of $442.26 million.

Disclosure:None

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