Generali Investments Management Co LLC Invests $2.64 Million in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Generali Investments Management Co LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 44,507 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,635,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth 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. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.30 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.94. The company has a market cap of $239.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.33, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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

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.