12,388 Shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Purchased by GWN Securities Inc.

GWN Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 12,388 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $769,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Swedbank AB increased its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after buying an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the third quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,071,153 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $57,007,000 after acquiring an additional 24,841 shares during the last quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 15.1% during the third quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 6,742 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 882 shares in the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 314,916 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $16,760,000 after purchasing an additional 16,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $140,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. BNP Paribas upgraded 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. Finally, Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $60.50 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.69 billion, a PE ratio of 26.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.