Nixon Peabody Trust Co. Makes New $243,000 Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,108 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 216,632 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade 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 is available at this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $61.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.79. The company has a market capitalization of $255.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month 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 the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.