Beacon Capital Management LLC Has $168,000 Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Beacon Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 38.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,831 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,737 shares during the quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. FMR LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $64.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average is $60.07 and its 200-day moving average is $55.54.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.