Parthenon LLC Boosts Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Parthenon LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 215,332 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,175 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for approximately 1.5% of Parthenon LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Parthenon LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $10,879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 48.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 71,385 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,838,000 after purchasing an additional 23,194 shares in the last quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 77.1% in the fourth quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc now owns 6,405 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 2,788 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 64,136 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,448,000 after buying an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,685,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 4,470,521 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $240,335,000 after acquiring an additional 49,700 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Bank of America upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Melius Research restated a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.7 %

CSCO stock traded down $0.80 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $46.98. 18,531,437 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,243,893. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $48.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.23 billion, a PE ratio of 14.28, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $45.56 and a one year high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.