St. Clair Advisors LLC Makes New $1.53 Million Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

St. Clair Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 25,789 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,527,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $63.62 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $58.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.72. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $253.10 billion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,635 shares of company stock valued at $931,901 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.