Catalyst Financial Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Catalyst Financial Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,309 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 920 shares during the period. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,261,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth approximately $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $254.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $59.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.36. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

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.