Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Sets New 1-Year High Following Dividend Announcement

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock traded as high as $66.41 and last traded at $65.16, with a volume of 566935 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $62.53.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.52%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.67.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $259.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.36.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.