3,606 Shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Bought by Avity Investment Management Inc.

Avity Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,606 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after acquiring an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

CSCO stock opened at $59.33 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $60.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $236.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.34.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CSCO. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.28.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. The trade was a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.