Juniper's Board Approves $1.1B Increase to Capital Return Plan

Juniper Networks' Board of Directors approved an increase to the share repurchase authorization by $1.1 billion.

For the first nine months of 2014, $1.75 billion of share repurchases have been already executed. The company intends to repurchase an additional $1.5 billion in aggregate share repurchases before end of Q2 2015. The Company is on track to return a total of $4.1 billion to shareholders over a 3-year period (2014 - 2016). The new capital return plan is an increase of $1.1 billion above the prior commitment to return $3.0 billion to shareholders over the same period.

Juniper also declared a fourth quarter cash dividend of $0.10 per share, to be paid on December 23, 2014 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 2, 2014.

"Our expanded capital return commitment reflects our ongoing focus on delivering value to shareholders over the near- and long-term," said Shaygan Kheradpir, chief executive officer of Juniper Networks. "We are confident in Juniper's future and believe current market conditions are providing us with a compelling opportunity to aggressively reduce share count while continuing to invest in the future growth of our business."

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In January 2014, Juniper Networks announced a corporate restructuring aimed at "enhancing its operational efficiency, returning capital to shareholders, refocusing on strategic opportunities and reinvigorating its culture."  The plan gained the support of Elliot Management, an outside investment firm that had been lobbying for changes at Juniper.

Juniper said it plans to refocus on "innovation that matters most to service providers and enterprises where demand for High-IQ Networks and best-in-class cloud environments are driving growth.  The plan included share repurchases, stock dividends and a renewed focus on routing, switching, security, control and network management.