Whipplewood Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 2,851 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,851 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $169,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FMR LLC boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 87.9% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,541,607 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $294,923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,591,684 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were 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 $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. Barclays boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report 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 report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.81 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a market capitalization of $253.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.66. 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 earnings results 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

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

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. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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.