GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases 5,829 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 189,182 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,829 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $11,200,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI raised its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during 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. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $502,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.0 %

CSCO opened at $62.57 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $62.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $249.20 billion, a PE ratio of 26.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day moving average is $59.59 and its 200 day moving average is $54.82.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

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.