Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd Buys New Shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 160,264 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,488,000. Cisco Systems accounts for 2.3% of Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 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 $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $60.50 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week 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 firm has a market cap of $240.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.79 and a 200-day moving average of $57.70.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 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, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

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.