Welch & Forbes LLC Has $37.81 Million Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Welch & Forbes LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 638,752 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,345 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $37,814,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $63.94. 21,153,303 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,042,023. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,348 shares of company stock worth $4,318,181 over the last three months. Corporate 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.