Empowered Funds LLC Acquires 33,404 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 424,830 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,404 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $22,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter worth approximately $840,538,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. Natixis lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 438.4% during the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 4,924,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $245,806,000 after buying an additional 4,010,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after buying an additional 2,906,357 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $57.79 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $59.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $230.62 billion, a PE ratio of 24.86, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50 day moving average of $53.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.64.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $1,115,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.42.

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.