Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stake Raised by Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC

Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 31.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,058 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 4,291 shares during the quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $477,463,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $60.23. The company had a trading volume of 23,800,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,184,370. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $60.95. The stock has a market cap of $239.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. 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 firm's 50 day simple moving average is $58.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.57.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 219,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,596,059. This represents a 20.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

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.