Bay Capital Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bay Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,976 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $988,499,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195,469 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.97 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $62.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $242.56 billion, a PE ratio of 26.62, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Company 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.