NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) - Get Report are gaining by 1.78% to $23.99 in early afternoon trading on Monday, following a ratings upgrade to "buy" from "neutral" at Goldman Sachs.

The firm said it raised its rating on the company, which designs, develops, and sells products and services for higher performance networks, based on its belief Juniper will see better end-market demand and a margin inflection.

Goldman upped its price target on Juniper to $28 from $26.

"We expect Juniper's revenues and operating margins to bottom in first quarter 2015, historically a good entry point in commtech", Goldman said in an analyst note, Barron's reports.

The firm said it sees revenue upside throughout 2015 resulting from quarter over quarter growth in Verizon (VZ) - Get Report and AT&T (T) - Get Report capex and exposure to AT&T's Domain 2.0 project, strong demand in Web 2.0 cable, and enterprise and federal verticals which makes up 62% of sales, the note continued.

TheStreet Ratings team rates JUNIPER NETWORKS INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate JUNIPER NETWORKS INC (JNPR) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Although JNPR's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27 is very low, it is currently higher than that of the industry average. To add to this, JNPR has a quick ratio of 1.68, which demonstrates the ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs.
• The gross profit margin for JUNIPER NETWORKS INC is rather high; currently it is at 67.05%. Regardless of JNPR's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, JNPR's net profit margin of -69.86% significantly underperformed when compared to the industry average.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $290.90 million or 25.48% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, JUNIPER NETWORKS INC has marginally lower results.
• Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Communications Equipment industry and the overall market, JUNIPER NETWORKS INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: JNPR Ratings Report