Atala Financial Inc Invests $197,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Atala Financial Inc acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 3,335 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $197,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CSCO. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,722,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in 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 during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 79.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

CSCO opened at $60.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $240.69 billion, a PE ratio of 26.42, a P/E/G 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.70.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

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.