Guinness Asset Management LTD Has $262.91 Million Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,441,557 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 221,017 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 4.9% of Guinness Asset Management LTD’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Guinness Asset Management LTD owned about 0.11% of Cisco Systems worth $262,912,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $60.23 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $58.91 and a 200-day moving average of $53.57. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $60.95. The stock has a market cap of $239.88 billion, a PE ratio of 25.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. 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 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

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.