M&G Plc Buys 47,424 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

M&G PLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 951,247 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 47,424 shares during the quarter. M&G PLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $50,416,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $33,830,000 after purchasing an additional 92,179 shares during the period. Finally, IRON Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $856,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. Tigress Financial raised their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. HSBC upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $56.74.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO traded up $0.21 during trading on Thursday, reaching $58.08. 17,867,887 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,980,061. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.27. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $58.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $231.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.87, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. Cisco Systems's revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.75%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 62.99%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.