Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s 6th Largest Position

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. decreased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 365,866 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,359 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for 2.9% of John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $18,484,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. United Bank purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $645,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 32.5% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 1,040,607 shares during the last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 10,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $588,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 21.5% during the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $656,000 after purchasing an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in 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 valued at $135,470,000 after acquiring an additional 182,857 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 research firms have commented on CSCO. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

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

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.2 %

CSCO traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $48.21. 11,353,154 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,379,309. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.29. The company has a market cap of $195.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.65, a PEG ratio of 2.74 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 current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 48.63%.

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.