Csenge Advisory Group Increases Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Csenge Advisory Group boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 31,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,372 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,855,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third 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 period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded 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 research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % 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 hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $64.87 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.59. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given 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 2.53%. 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 authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership 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.