Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 556,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 177,579 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $29,603,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $798,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares during the last quarter. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $60.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $239.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.76, a PEG ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $60.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $56.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.82.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 344,360 shares of company stock valued at $19,782,533. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.94.

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.