Sei Investments Co. Raises Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,183,006 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 34,103 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $129,234,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CSCO. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after buying an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $16,798,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 682,132 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,303,000 after acquiring an additional 37,424 shares during the period. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,881 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 651 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,952 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,117,000 after acquiring an additional 2,060 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 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. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $60.30 on Friday. 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. The stock has a market cap of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.11.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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%. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 dividend yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated 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 an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.