Harbour Investments Inc. Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Harbour Investments Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 49,491 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,506 shares during the quarter. Harbour Investments Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,930,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $60.50 on Monday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.80. 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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 directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.