GAMMA Investing LLC Grows Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 15.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 61,502 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,394 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 0.6% of GAMMA Investing LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,070,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its position in Cisco Systems by 1,096.2% in the fourth quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,906,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $146,845,000 after acquiring an additional 2,663,676 shares in the last quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 77.1% in the fourth quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc now owns 6,405 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 2,788 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $28,685,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.1% in the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 4,470,521 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $240,335,000 after purchasing an additional 49,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC now owns 192,674 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,734,000 after acquiring an additional 1,097 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.47.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $45.97 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $185.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.95 and a 12 month high of $58.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $47.22 and its 200-day moving average is $48.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 30.82% and a net margin of 21.88%. The company’s revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.48%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total transaction of $386,691.84. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,717,209.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,378 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.89, for a total value of $155,016.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 52,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,430,013.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total value of $386,691.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,717,209.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 41,106 shares of company stock worth $1,908,923. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.