Sentinus LLC Raises Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sentinus LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,220 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 508 shares during the quarter. Sentinus LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $132,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,003,000 after acquiring an additional 7,338 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 112,101 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,636,000 after acquiring an additional 5,123 shares during the last quarter. Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $1,670,000. Finally, Stonegate Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 1,539,557 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $91,142,000 after purchasing an additional 11,506 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,635 shares of company stock worth $931,901 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.62 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $58.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.69. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. 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 company has a market cap of $253.10 billion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share repurchase 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 purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems 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.