Erste Asset Management GmbH Acquires 243,836 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Erste Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 39.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 859,518 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 243,836 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $50,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $60.46 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $61.74 and a 200 day moving average of $57.62. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.