Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC Takes Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,478 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 6.8% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 171,490 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,127,000 after purchasing an additional 10,895 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.2% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 8,586,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $452,526,000 after purchasing an additional 347,061 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 169,711 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smith Salley Wealth Management raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.9% in the third quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 68,758 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,659,000 after purchasing an additional 580 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.98 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $254.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.30. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 69.87%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, 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 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. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.