Kimelman & Baird LLC Purchases 361 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Kimelman & Baird LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,006 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Curio Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $402,000. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $1,088,000. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 99,797 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,908,000 after acquiring an additional 5,126 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 102,425 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,064,000 after acquiring an additional 2,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 936,952 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $55,468,000 after acquiring an additional 157,266 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on CSCO. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $60.50 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $61.79 and its 200 day moving average is $57.80. The company has a market capitalization 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, 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.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Research 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last quarter. 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.