Stevens Capital Management LP Buys Shares of 12,898 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 12,898 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $764,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,722,000. FMR LLC increased 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 worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position 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. Finally, State Street Corp grew 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.30 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 50 day moving average price of $61.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in 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 often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm 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 represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

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.