Guardian Partners Inc. Invests $335,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Guardian Partners Inc. acquired 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 and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 5,655 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $335,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $105,685,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 295,145 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $17,473,000 after purchasing an additional 5,420 shares in the last quarter. Umpqua Bank increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 9,132 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $542,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the period. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 94.0% in the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,017 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,067,000 after purchasing an additional 8,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intellus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $492,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the sale, 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. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $60.30 on Monday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $61.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding 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 generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.