Mariner LLC Acquires 224,528 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Mariner LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 12.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,070,959 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 224,528 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Cisco Systems worth $122,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Advisory Resource Group increased its position in Cisco Systems by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 97,718 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,201,000 after buying an additional 1,784 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $798,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,097,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 137,503 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $7,318,000 after purchasing an additional 16,749 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. 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 report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.00.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.33 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $228.08 billion, a PE ratio of 25.04, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.