Citizens & Northern Corp Grows Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Citizens & Northern Corp boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 33,156 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,289 shares during the period. Citizens & Northern Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was 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 directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.87 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $60.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program 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 purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Company 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.