Alpine Global Management LLC Invests $233,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Alpine Global Management LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,941 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 118.0% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 341,738 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $20,231,000 after purchasing an additional 184,965 shares in the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $96,000. MML Investors Services LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 964,086 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $57,074,000 after buying an additional 31,865 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 1,055,143 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $62,464,000 after acquiring an additional 7,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norinchukin Bank The lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Norinchukin Bank The now owns 225,593 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,355,000 after acquiring an additional 14,341 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $80.00 to $63.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.68.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $55.04 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $60.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.04, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.