Howland Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Howland Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 35.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,686 shares during the period. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew 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. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 219,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,596,059. This trade represents a 20.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued 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 target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $62.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $59.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $54.98. The company has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $63.25.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

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.