Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Position Raised by Sargent Investment Group LLC

Sargent Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 16.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,308 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 872 shares during the quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $371,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $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 buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $502,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.57 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.77. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $62.71. The firm has a market cap of $249.20 billion, a PE ratio of 26.85, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. 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 research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Company 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.