Ballast Inc. Boosts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ballast Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,040 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 326 shares during the period. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,063,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. United Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter valued at about $645,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,243,073 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $236,593,000 after acquiring an additional 1,040,607 shares during the last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 10,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $588,000 after acquiring an additional 1,221 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 21.5% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $656,000 after purchasing an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,429,518 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $135,470,000 after buying an additional 182,857 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CSCO. Melius Research restated a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.42.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $49.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $202.10 billion, a PE ratio of 15.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $49.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.93. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.56 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last 90 days. 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.