J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc. Makes New Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,609 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. United Capital Management of KS Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. now owns 20,690 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,225,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. HMV Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $681,000. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 66,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,927,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the period. Renasant Bank increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Renasant Bank now owns 9,663 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003 shares during the period. Finally, Atala Financial Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $197,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.70. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.