Alta Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Alta Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 10.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 72,448 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,973 shares during the quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 22nd. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven 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 data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.48 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $252.54 billion, a PE ratio of 27.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a fifty day moving average of $61.32 and a 200 day moving average of $57.06. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Company 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.