Madison Investment Advisors LLC Invests $698,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 11,797 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.0% during the third quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 21,154 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,126,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.6% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,471,479 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $78,311,000 after buying an additional 64,582 shares during the last quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% during the third quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 50,979 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,713,000 after buying an additional 3,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BluePointe Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.0% during the third quarter. BluePointe Capital Management LLC now owns 8,537 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $454,000 after buying an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

CSCO opened at $60.50 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $61.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.70. The company has a market cap of $240.69 billion, a PE ratio of 26.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Company 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.