Nicolet Advisory Services LLC Purchases 2,018 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Nicolet Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 10.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,731 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,018 shares during the quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 31.5% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,703,949 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $143,877,000 after acquiring an additional 647,426 shares in the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 23.9% in the third quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 79,311 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,214,000 after purchasing an additional 15,285 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $798,000. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $798,000. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 82.2% in the 3rd quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 579,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,841,000 after buying an additional 261,400 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $61.82 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $245.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $62.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.79.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. 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 announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Company 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.