CoreFirst Bank & Trust Purchases New Shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,095 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $598,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $988,499,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195,469 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.97 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $242.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.62, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.25. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50.

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

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. 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 corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

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.