South Dakota Investment Council Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

South Dakota Investment Council lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 289.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 217,959 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 161,933 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $11,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 112,962 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,643,000 after acquiring an additional 5,425 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 7,752 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,665,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,717 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $845,000 after acquiring an additional 1,852 shares during the period. Finally, Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. now owns 113,352 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,727,000 after acquiring an additional 629 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.13 on Wednesday, reaching $48.19. 8,948,911 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,340,549. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $45.56 and a 52 week high of $58.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.13 billion, a PE ratio of 14.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.13.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

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.