Hilltop Partners LLC Has $1.19 Million Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Hilltop Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,150 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,688 shares during the period. Hilltop Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,193,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd 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 lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,107,930,000 after buying an additional 216,632 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.66. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $253.85 billion, a PE ratio of 27.86, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last ninety days. 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.