Perennial Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Perennial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 128,853 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,628,000. Cisco Systems makes up 1.7% of Perennial Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $560,722,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $413,491,000. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 187.9% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $442,749,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880,747 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Eight equities 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $68.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,431 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,356. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4%

Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $63.52. 3,928,821 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,257,829. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $251.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The business's 50-day moving average price is $59.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

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

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.