Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $560.72 Million in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 9,471,656 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $560,722,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.24% of Cisco Systems as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. First Business Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 52,106 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,085,000 after buying an additional 1,127 shares in the last quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 51.9% in the fourth quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 236,694 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,012,000 after buying an additional 80,849 shares during the last quarter. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $184,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 517,842 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $30,656,000 after purchasing an additional 2,146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,580,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.96 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.20.

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

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems 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.