Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Holdings Lifted by LVZ Inc.

LVZ Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 9,141 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,365 shares during the quarter. LVZ Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $541,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 86,164 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,101,000 after purchasing an additional 5,622 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 34,814 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,066,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 108,729 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,362,000 after buying an additional 896 shares during the last quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $204,000. Finally, WoodTrust Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 15,541 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $920,000 after acquiring an additional 5,113 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. UBS Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.26 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.16. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $251.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.62, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.