Stevens Capital Management LP Purchases New Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 12,898 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $764,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $132,000. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $502,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on CSCO. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.30 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.11. 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 one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The company has a market cap of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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, equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors 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.