Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Buys 664,064 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 114.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,242,016 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 664,064 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises 1.5% of Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $76,645,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,185 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total value of $265,789.35. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,921.53. The trade was a 9.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total transaction of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at $44,478,105.49. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 68,573 shares of company stock worth $4,392,619 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.19 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $254.19 billion, a PE ratio of 28.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

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

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.