Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Bought by State of Wyoming

State of Wyoming boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 1,450.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,673 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 29,630 shares during the period. State of Wyoming's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,875,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $209,000. Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $603,000. Empirical Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 39.6% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 46,338 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,743,000 after buying an additional 13,155 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 74,729 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,424,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Finally, Chemistry Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $210,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 34,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,181,437 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.50 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $63.42. The stock had a trading volume of 14,991,525 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,368,950. The firm has a market capitalization of $252.30 billion, a PE ratio of 27.69, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The stock's 50 day moving average is $58.82 and its 200 day moving average is $59.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company's revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus 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.