The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires 454,497 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,996,104 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 454,497 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $354,969,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $232,000. Bellwether Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $80,000. Israel Discount Bank of New York acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $204,000. Mendel Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $210,000. Finally, Betterment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $248,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $56.71 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $225.61 billion, a PE ratio of 24.76, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.27. 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 results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CSCO. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius upgraded shares of 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 report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.68.

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.