Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Purchased by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,544,333 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 304,217 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned 0.11% of Cisco Systems worth $241,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $1,698,000. Hilltop Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 122,957 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,544,000 after buying an additional 39,139 shares during the last quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.7% during the third quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $240,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 2,333,566 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $124,192,000 after acquiring an additional 13,726 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coastwise Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the third quarter. Coastwise Capital Group LLC now owns 25,470 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,356,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

CSCO stock opened at $59.43 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $55.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.54. The stock has a market cap of $236.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.85. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $59.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. New Street Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 344,360 shares of company stock worth $19,782,533 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.