New Century Financial Group LLC Purchases 827 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

New Century Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,619 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 827 shares during the quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $647,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Quarry LP grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Retirement Group LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 56.8% during the 1st quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 726 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $53.22 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $214.41 billion, a PE ratio of 17.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $49.14 and a 200-day moving average of $48.16. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $54.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 53.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,821,929.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.00.

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.