Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Purchased by Alley Investment Management Company LLC

Alley Investment Management Company LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 107,590 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,159 shares during the quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $6,369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 26,128 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,803 shares during the last quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 7,772 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $414,000 after acquiring an additional 695 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,702 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $623,000 after acquiring an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 46,809 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,491,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.48 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $252.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.