SWS Partners Raises Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

SWS Partners increased its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,951 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,078 shares during the period. SWS Partners’ holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,655,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $63.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $61.32 and a 200 day moving average of $57.06. The company has a market cap of $252.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.72, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (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, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current 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 issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback 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 purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. Corporate insiders own 0.01% 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.