LVZ Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

LVZ Inc. boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,141 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,365 shares during the quarter. LVZ Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $541,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $251.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.16. 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 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock 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 repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CSCO. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

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.