Matrix Trust Co Raises Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Matrix Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 518.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,563 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,825 shares during the quarter. Matrix Trust Co’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. FMR LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after buying an additional 3,975,028 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Melius upgraded shares of 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 note on Monday, January 6th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.28.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $58.74 on Monday. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.18. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $60.23. The company has a market cap of $233.95 billion, a PE ratio of 25.21, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.