Arizona State Retirement System Increases Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,176,284 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 18,441 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises 0.5% of Arizona State Retirement System's holdings, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Arizona State Retirement System's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $72,588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on CSCO. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $77.00 price objective for the company. Eight 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.53.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,726 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.54, for a total value of $571,902.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 174,669 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,447,806.26. The trade was a 4.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total transaction of $57,778.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 255,377 shares in the company, valued at $16,413,079.79. The trade was a 0.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $67.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,698,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,363,229. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $69.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The business has a fifty day moving average of $65.02 and a 200-day moving average of $61.81. The stock has a market cap of $269.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.90.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

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.