Assetmark Inc. Purchases 5,622 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 7.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 86,164 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 5,622 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,101,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,348 shares of company stock worth $4,318,181 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded up $0.53 during trading on Friday, hitting $63.94. The company had a trading volume of 21,153,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,042,023. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $61.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.39. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued 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 return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.