Paragon Capital Management Ltd Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Paragon Capital Management Ltd lifted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,972 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,148 shares during the period. Paragon Capital Management Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $801,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on CSCO. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Eight 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $65.10 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $257.80 billion, a PE ratio of 28.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.53. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total transaction of $637,205.17. Following the sale, the insider now owns 257,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,450,653.14. The trade was a 3.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total value of $48,821.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,937 shares in the company, valued at $2,366,553.59. This trade represents a 2.02% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 72,931 shares of company stock valued at $4,671,930. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.