Northern Trust Corp Purchases 4,832,813 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 11.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,832,813 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.19% of Cisco Systems worth $2,796,505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $65.05.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of CSCO stock traded up $0.39 on Wednesday, hitting $57.73. 19,282,870 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,253,071. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $59.40 and a 200 day moving average of $59.26.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a $0.41 dividend. This is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.84%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Cisco Systems

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.