Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. Purchases 12,141 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 346.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,641 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 12,141 shares during the quarter. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $926,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,075,320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the 4th 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. 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 report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $66.53.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,921 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,667 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $64.57. 6,995,163 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,714,158. 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 has a 50-day moving average price of $60.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $257.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 69.87%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.