Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Purchased by Wedbush Securities Inc.

Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 195,006 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,182 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $11,544,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $132,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.4% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $502,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after buying an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 4.8 %

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $54.54 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $216.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.81. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two 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.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.01%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 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 in the last ninety days. 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.