GAMMA Investing LLC Acquires 6,625,045 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 7,096.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,718,402 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 6,625,045 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC owned approximately 0.17% of Cisco Systems worth $414,593,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $64.77. 5,698,338 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,138,042. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The company has a market cap of $256.49 billion, a PE ratio of 28.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88. 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's fifty day simple moving average is $59.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $60.20.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total transaction of $612,330.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 181,186 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,505,311. This trade represents a 5.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the sale, the insider now owns 257,162 shares in the company, valued at $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,616 shares of company stock valued at $2,640,095. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Company 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.