J2 Capital Management Inc Makes New $548,000 Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 9,257 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $548,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $60.23 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $60.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company’s fifty day moving average is $58.91 and its 200 day moving average is $53.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a PE ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.