Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Acquires 1,722 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,722 shares during the quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $676,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $56,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.84 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $59.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a market cap of $254.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on CSCO. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

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.