Covea Finance Makes New $5.25 Million Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Covea Finance bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 68,200 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,253,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,816,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 413.3% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 22,393,371 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,553,645,000 after acquiring an additional 18,030,441 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 46.2% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 40,836,858 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,833,261,000 after acquiring an additional 12,904,969 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 110.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,406,442 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,259,369,000 after acquiring an additional 9,648,265 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 6,778.2% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,810,012 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $472,479,000 after acquiring an additional 6,711,004 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,179 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.74, for a total transaction of $169,395.46. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 28,807 shares in the company, valued at $2,239,456.18. The trade was a 7.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 11,248 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total transaction of $854,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 262,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,970,976. The trade was a 4.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 46,431 shares of company stock valued at $3,574,820. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Wall Street Zen cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. President Capital reduced their price objective on Cisco Systems from $90.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Evercore raised Cisco Systems from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, CICC Research raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.55.

Key Headlines Impacting Cisco Systems

Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cisco launched a 10?year “40 Communities” program to improve emergency connectivity, disaster response networks and local digital/cyber skills — a long?term CSR/market?development initiative that can lead to public?sector contracts and steady demand for networking/security products. Cisco Community Push Puts 40 Communities Initiative In Investor Focus
• Positive Sentiment: Macro/sector commentary (Goldman) highlights AI, cybersecurity and infrastructure as winners — a thematic tailwind for Cisco’s routing, switching and security franchises as enterprise and cloud customers spend on AI?ready networks. The AI Payoff Is the ‘Biggest Question’ for U.S. Investors, Says Goldman’s Snider
• Positive Sentiment: Technical commentary suggests Cisco could clear overhead resistance — if price momentum follows, that can draw momentum buyers and short?covering. Blue?Chip Tech Stock Could Topple Overhead Resistance
• Neutral Sentiment: Short?interest data for March appear anomalous/zero — no meaningful short position to drive a short squeeze or large covering flows in the near term.
• Neutral Sentiment: Supplier/supply?chain coverage (Jabil) and sector pieces underline stronger demand in AI/infrastructure, which indirectly supports Cisco but doesn’t alter Cisco’s near?term fundamentals on its own. Jabil Quietly Manufactures an Accelerating Stock Price Rally
• Neutral Sentiment: Note that Cisco’s recent price weakness has partly tracked the Nasdaq, indicating some index/market pressure rather than company?specific deterioration. Price Decline Meets Nasdaq Composite Trends
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: two executive VPs disclosed recent sales (Oliver Tuszik — 3,132 shares; Deborah L. Stahlkopf — 7,981 shares). Sales are modest relative to holdings but clustered insider sales can weigh on near?term sentiment. SEC filing — Tuszik sale SEC filing — Stahlkopf sale
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation concern: some analysis flags Cisco as expensive on price?to?sales, which could cap upside for value?focused investors despite growth in AI/networking demand. Cisco is Overvalued at 4.95X PS

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $77.65 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $74.78. The company has a market cap of $306.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $52.11 and a 12-month high of $88.18.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $15.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.11 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.88% and a net margin of 19.22%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 57.54%.

Cisco Systems Profile

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.