Bailard Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bailard Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 133,238 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,450 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $7,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after buying an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 51,032 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,716,000 after acquiring an additional 1,907 shares during the last quarter. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC now owns 57,948 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,084,000 after acquiring an additional 7,675 shares during the last quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 51,489 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,740,000 after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 69,954 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.14 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $255.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.01, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. On average, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost 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 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.