Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Purchased by American Investment Services Inc.

American Investment Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 21.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,846 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,920 shares during the quarter. American Investment Services Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $642,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $252,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $55,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $232,307,000. Brucke Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $300,000. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 41,100 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $63.11 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.99. The firm has a market cap of $249.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.56, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve 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.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 66.94%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,431 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,356. Corporate 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.