Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 13.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 187,170 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 21,617 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $11,080,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. State Street Corp lifted its stake in 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 valued at $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in 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 valued at $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of CSCO traded up $0.53 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $63.94. 21,153,303 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,042,023. The company has a market cap of $254.37 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm 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 is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

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

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company's stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 67,348 shares of company stock valued at $4,318,181. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.