Axa S.A. Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

AXA S.A. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,013,866 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 219,621 shares during the quarter. AXA S.A. owned about 0.08% of Cisco Systems worth $178,421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $560,722,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 187.9% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $442,749,000 after buying an additional 4,880,747 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,796,505,000 after acquiring an additional 4,832,813 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $65.05.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.60 during trading on Thursday, hitting $60.17. The company had a trading volume of 6,798,102 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,191,084. The stock has a market cap of $239.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.38. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.