First Merchants Corp Buys 4,204 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First Merchants Corp lifted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 87,424 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,204 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,176,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $56,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CSCO. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Seven investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.1 %

CSCO stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.36. The company has a market capitalization of $254.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.