Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,012,313 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,360 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $53,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,830,000 after buying an additional 92,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IRON Financial LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $856,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 342,858 shares of company stock worth $19,661,157 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.7 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $58.55 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $55.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.15. The company has a market capitalization of $233.19 billion, a PE ratio of 25.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

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.