Bay Capital Advisors LLC Takes $235,000 Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bay Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 3,976 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction 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 approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.97 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $242.56 billion, a PE ratio of 26.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $62.00 and a 200-day moving average of $58.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

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.