Braun Stacey Associates Inc. Purchases New Shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Braun Stacey Associates Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 142,678 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $8,805,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 49.5% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,392,000 after acquiring an additional 24,562 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 37.0% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,156 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $542,000 after acquiring an additional 2,474 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 86,164 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,101,000 after acquiring an additional 5,622 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in 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 worth $1,003,000 after acquiring an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Welch & Forbes LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 638,752 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $37,814,000 after acquiring an additional 6,345 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $69.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.44 during trading on Monday, hitting $68.93. 22,606,868 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,365,214. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.58. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $69.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $272.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.13, a PEG ratio of 4.15 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total transaction of $48,821.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 36,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,366,553.59. This trade represents a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,726 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.54, for a total transaction of $571,902.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 174,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,447,806.26. This represents a 4.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.