Sage Investment Counsel LLC Makes New $355,000 Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sage Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 5,996 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $355,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 worth $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 worth $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 216,632 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 three months, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted 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 issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $64.14 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $255.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $61.23 and a 200-day moving average of $56.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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.