Ossiam Grows Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ossiam boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,781 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 4,522 shares during the period. Ossiam's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,427,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $132,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 76.4% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,003,000 after acquiring an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at $502,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted 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 valued at $1,107,930,000 after purchasing an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of CSCO stock traded up $0.78 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $56.41. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,134,230 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,137,087. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $60.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.13. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The company has a market cap of $224.42 billion, a PE ratio of 24.65, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.91%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company's 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 directly owns 44,155 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $64.68.

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.