Brandes Investment Partners LP Raises Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 613,072 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,634 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $36,294,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares during the period. Neumann Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 21,154 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,126,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,471,479 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $78,311,000 after purchasing an additional 64,582 shares during the period. First Business Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 50,979 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,713,000 after purchasing an additional 3,329 shares during the period. Finally, BluePointe Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. BluePointe Capital Management LLC now owns 8,537 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.50 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $240.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $61.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

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 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, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program 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 programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems 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.