Nixon Peabody Trust Co. Invests $243,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,108 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $502,000. Finally, Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,830,000 after purchasing an additional 92,179 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.14 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $255.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. On average, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.