Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Bought by Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,821,415 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 505,728 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $401,503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $132,000. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,003,000 after acquiring an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO stock opened at $61.80 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.36. The company has a market capitalization of $245.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.99, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase 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 approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the 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 directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.