GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC. Boosts Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 266.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 16,500 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 12,000 shares during the period. GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $977,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during 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 buying an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 13,880,257 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $821,711,000 after acquiring an additional 2,114,994 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $65.58.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $55.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 15,874,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,149,900. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $60.69 and a 200-day moving average of $59.08. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its 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, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

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.