Prudential Financial Inc. Increases Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,211,884 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 355,085 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $308,544,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $16,798,000. Meridian Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,952 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060 shares during the last quarter. Nwam LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.6% in the third quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 18,570 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $988,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the period. Finally, Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.5% in the third quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 104,490 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,561,000 after purchasing an additional 4,480 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, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.30 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $239.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.33, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.17.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results 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 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

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 paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven research 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. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.