WestHill Financial Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

WestHill Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,553 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the quarter. WestHill Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $270,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after buying an additional 216,632 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CSCO. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $60.31 and a 200-day moving average of $55.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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 return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,921 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,667 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.