United Bank Purchases 1,589 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

United Bank boosted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,908 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,589 shares during the period. United Bank’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.86 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $62.11 and a 200-day moving average of $58.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $242.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.