UniSuper Management Pty Ltd Has $112.62 Million Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,902,354 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,425 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up 0.8% of UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $112,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in 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 during the period. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in 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 during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 108.7% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 3,582,670 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $190,670,000 after buying an additional 1,865,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems 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 value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % 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 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $61.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.36. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $245.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.99, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its 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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. 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. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

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

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.