Enhancing Capital LLC Takes $1.97 Million Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Enhancing Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 33,192 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,965,000. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 1.6% of Enhancing Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after buying an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.8% in the third quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 28,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,526,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Aljian Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $428,000. Equity Investment Corp boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the third quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,294,070 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $68,870,000 after purchasing an additional 6,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Wealth Management boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the third quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $60.89 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.88. The company has a market cap of $242.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.59, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback 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 buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 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 value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.