Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 130.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,652,111 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 933,859 shares during the quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $97,805,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $132,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 112,101 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 5,123 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,670,000. Finally, Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 1,539,557 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $91,142,000 after buying an additional 11,506 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % 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 Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders 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 owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of CSCO traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $59.77. 17,480,737 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,300,975. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $237.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The stock's 50-day moving average is $58.78 and its 200-day moving average is $59.45. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, sell-side 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 buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $65.05.

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.