Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 3,441 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,441 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $502,000. Finally, Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,830,000 after buying an additional 92,179 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.67 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.01. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $257.57 billion, a PE ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.87%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value 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 $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

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.