Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. Buys New Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Cassia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% in the third quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 13,950 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $750,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% in the third quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 24,693 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,328,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.6% in the third quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,686 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the third quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,385 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 19.3% in the third quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,232 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $48.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,239,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,471,814. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.69, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.13. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.31%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now 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 a total of 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 over the last three months. 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.