Lincoln National Corp Boosts Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Lincoln National Corp raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 12.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 108,602 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,680 shares during the quarter. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,487,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $47.11. 14,161,773 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,119,422. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.73. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.70 and a 1-year high of $58.19. 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 firm has a market cap of $190.76 billion, a PE ratio of 14.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 48.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 in the last ninety 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.