Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Bought by F M Investments LLC

F M Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 76.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 243,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 105,252 shares during the quarter. F M Investments LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $14,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.00.

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 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing 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 dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 9.3 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $58.13 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $231.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

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 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost 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 yield of 2.82%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Cisco Systems

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.