Equity Investment Corp Grows Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Equity Investment Corp grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,294,070 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,574 shares during the quarter. Equity Investment Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $68,870,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth $840,538,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares in the last quarter. Natixis grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 438.4% during the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 4,924,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $245,806,000 after acquiring an additional 4,010,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,357 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.8 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.46 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $54.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. The trade was a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. This trade represents a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, New Street Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

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.