Hopwood Financial Services Inc. Invests $253,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,268 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $253,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $560,722,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased 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 buying an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,348 shares of company stock worth $4,318,181 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.67 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.60. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The company has a market capitalization of $241.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its 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%. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems 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.