Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Takes Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 10,986 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $650,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.86 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $62.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.47. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $242.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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%. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership 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. 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 dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.