Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC Acquires 6,400 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 64,348 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,400 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for approximately 1.6% of Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,809,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $502,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on CSCO. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.72.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO traded up $0.92 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $60.47. The stock had a trading volume of 17,063,137 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,070,680. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $59.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.35. The firm has a market cap of $240.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.95, a PEG ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company's revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.