Fortem Financial Group LLC Increases Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Fortem Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,774 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,135 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 1.2% of Fortem Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Fortem Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,862,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FMR LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after buying an additional 3,975,028 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $58.72 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $233.87 billion, a PE ratio of 25.20, a P/E/G ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day moving average of $56.65 and a 200 day moving average of $51.05. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, 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 transaction of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 351,860 shares of company stock worth $20,231,558 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. HSBC upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Company 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.