Mediolanum International Funds Ltd Purchases 269,647 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Mediolanum International Funds Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 41.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 916,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 269,647 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for about 0.7% of Mediolanum International Funds Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $54,113,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.44 on Monday, reaching $61.04. 20,330,776 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,706,807. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.58. The stock has a market cap of $243.11 billion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company 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.