Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Acquired by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 50.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,627,956 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,219,311 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $392,375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

CSCO opened at $61.71 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $245.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Company 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.