J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Buys 33,237 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 99.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 66,611 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,237 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. United Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth $645,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 32.5% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,243,073 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $236,593,000 after acquiring an additional 1,040,607 shares in the last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 10,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $588,000 after acquiring an additional 1,221 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 21.5% in the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $656,000 after acquiring an additional 2,079 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.1% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,429,518 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $135,470,000 after acquiring an additional 182,857 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Melius Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.03.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $48.32. 20,964,433 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,323,960. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.56 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.31%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.