5,300 Shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Acquired by Board of the Pension Protection Fund

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 5,300 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $59.33 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.34.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.28.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. The trade was a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.