Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Bought by Sierra Summit Advisors LLC

Sierra Summit Advisors LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 26.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 34,881 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,326 shares during the period. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,065,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 92.3% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,271 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Bontempo Ohly Capital Mgmt LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the third quarter. Bontempo Ohly Capital Mgmt LLC now owns 80,435 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,281,000 after buying an additional 2,082 shares during the last quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 145.4% during the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 980 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 932,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $49,613,000 after acquiring an additional 12,849 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,583,832 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $137,512,000 after acquiring an additional 52,242 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $54.54 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $216.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.92.

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 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 a positive change 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 3.01%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on CSCO. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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 directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’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 $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. This trade represents 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 worth $4,275,553 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.