Griffith & Werner Inc. Buys New Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Griffith & Werner Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 6,744 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $399,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $560,722,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $413,491,000. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 187.9% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $442,749,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880,747 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $251.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.93. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 257,162 shares in the company, valued at $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 22,431 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,356. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

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.