Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Bought by Jones Financial Companies Lllp

Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 42.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 394,076 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 116,647 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $23,329,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after buying an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 87.9% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,541,607 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $294,923,000 after buying an additional 2,591,684 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.5 %

CSCO stock opened at $64.14 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $255.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost 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 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’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 $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is 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.