Handelsbanken Fonder AB Increases Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,592,101 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 145,835 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 0.6% of Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned 0.07% of Cisco Systems worth $153,452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sunpointe LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 66.2% during the 4th quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 9,076 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $537,000 after purchasing an additional 3,614 shares in the last quarter. LMG Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. LMG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 37,570 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,224,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 269,517 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,955,000 after buying an additional 10,088 shares during the period. Emerald Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 21,399 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,267,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 366,454 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $21,694,000 after buying an additional 2,254 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.84 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $258.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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 return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.01 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. 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 yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.87%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,921 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,667 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.