Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Raises Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,504 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,286 shares during the quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $985,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in 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. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,254,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth about $840,538,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,596,059. The trade was a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 342,858 shares of company stock valued at $19,661,157. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $58.55 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $55.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.15. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $233.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.73%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

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.