Steele Capital Management Inc. Buys Shares of 6,583 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Steele Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,583 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $333,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 18,750,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $947,262,000 after purchasing an additional 3,753,165 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $179,207,000. Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7,074.3% during the third quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 3,271,642 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $175,883,000 after buying an additional 3,226,040 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 32.7% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,749,370 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $391,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,909,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,717,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847,682 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CSCO. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Finally, Melius Research reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the firm’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 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 sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.54 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $47.24. 3,919,730 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,071,051. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $45.56 and a one year high of $58.19. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $48.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.97. The company has a market cap of $191.28 billion, a PE ratio of 14.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.63%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.