Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Trading Up 1.5% Following Dividend Announcement

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock price traded up 1.5% on Thursday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $66.50 and last traded at $63.50. 18,200,011 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 19,045,219 shares. The stock had previously closed at $62.53.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.56.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.1 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $251.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $59.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often 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 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.