Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Boosts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 14.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 21,210 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,706 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 0.1% of Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,256,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $560,722,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975,028 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.41 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $61.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.25. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $252.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.69, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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 $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis 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 is presently 71.62%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 67,348 shares of company stock valued at $4,318,181. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.