National Pension Service Buys 145,286 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

National Pension Service lifted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,050,690 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 145,286 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $356,201,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,672,445,000 after purchasing an additional 6,345,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,069,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,790,717 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,717,537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,847,682 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 33,536,256 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,802,909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,181,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 18,750,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $947,262,000 after buying an additional 3,753,165 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on CSCO. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 target price on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.3 %

Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $47.84. The stock had a trading volume of 5,051,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,864,260. The company has a market capitalization of $193.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.57, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $45.70 and a one year high of $58.19. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $48.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

Cisco Systems 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.