Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Purchased by Howland Capital Management LLC

Howland Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 35.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,686 shares during the period. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Visionary Horizons LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Horizons LLC now owns 12,715 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $753,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 10,703 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $634,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 183,577 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,618 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 23,822 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,410,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaStar Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. AlphaStar Capital Management LLC now owns 32,200 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,906,000 after acquiring an additional 911 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CSCO. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $62.27 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.98. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $63.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $248.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.73, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % 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, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.