Allstate Corp Purchases New Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Allstate Corp bought a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 111,164 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,581,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised 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 note on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $242.12 billion, a PE ratio of 26.58, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $62.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.47. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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.