Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Buys 21,243 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.5%, owning over 4 million shares after acquiring an additional 21,243 shares during the first quarter.
• Recent analyst ratings for Cisco Systems include a downgrade to "buy" from "strong-buy" by Wall Street Zen, while other analysts have lifted target prices, reflecting mixed sentiment around the stock.
• Cisco Systems reported earnings exceeding expectations with a revenue increase of 11.4% year-over-year, and a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share was paid recently.

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 0.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,051,841 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 21,243 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up 0.7% of Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp's investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp owned 0.10% of Cisco Systems worth $250,039,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirabaud & Cie SA increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.0% during the first quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA now owns 101,350 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $6,254,000 after buying an additional 8,360 shares during the period. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 438.5% during the first quarter. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. now owns 12,256 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $756,000 after buying an additional 9,980 shares during the period. IFG Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.1% during the first quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 82,881 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $5,115,000 after buying an additional 3,235 shares during the period. SPC Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the first quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 48,654 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,002,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the period. Finally, TIAA Trust National Association increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 31.8% during the first quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 494,577 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $30,520,000 after buying an additional 119,220 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the subject of several recent research reports. CICC Research assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, July 14th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $78.00 target price for the company. New Street Research reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $70.35.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded up $1.38 on Monday, hitting $68.49. 17,046,413 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,981,078. The firm has a market cap of $271.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.96, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.91. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $69.78. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 66.94%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total value of $57,778.73. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 255,377 shares in the company, valued at $16,413,079.79. The trade was a 0.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total transaction of $154,072.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,331,498.27. This trade represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.