Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Position Boosted by Payden & Rygel

Payden & Rygel increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 625.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 256,470 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 221,100 shares during the quarter. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $13,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 617.7% in the 2nd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 766 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.50 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $229.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.00. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on CSCO. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 321,628 shares of company stock valued at $18,449,561. 0.01% of the stock is currently 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.