Polar Capital Holdings Plc Purchases Shares of 180,671 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 180,671 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,696,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,635 shares of company stock valued at $931,901 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $255.65 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

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.