Aberdeen Group plc Buys 71,432 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Aberdeen Group plc raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,077,448 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 71,432 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up 0.7% of Aberdeen Group plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Aberdeen Group plc’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $415,363,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 47,211 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,230,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Pacific Point Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 11.8% during the third quarter. Pacific Point Advisors LLC now owns 4,764 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.0% during the third quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 6,271 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $429,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. New World Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Finally, Naviter Wealth LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 44,595 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,051,000 after acquiring an additional 974 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Cisco Systems

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cisco unveiled the Silicon One G300 switching chip designed for large AI cluster buildouts, positioning the company to compete in a multi‑hundred‑billion dollar AI infrastructure market — a clear long‑term growth catalyst. Silicon One G300 announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 results beat both EPS and revenue expectations and management highlighted strong AI/customer orders (notably ~$2.1B of AI infrastructure orders), supporting revenue momentum and the firm’s raised FY guidance. That underpins upside if Cisco converts AI demand into sustained margin expansion. Zacks coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple sell‑side firms raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views (examples: CICC raised its target to $96; UBS, Citi, BNP/Exane and others increased targets), which can support further upside via analyst-driven flows and ETF reweighting. CICC price target update
• Neutral Sentiment: Free cash flow fell year‑over‑year but remains positive with healthy margins; analysts note strong FCF long term despite higher capex for AI initiatives — this reduces downside risk but flags near‑term investment drag. TalkMarkets FCF piece
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat and other bullish pieces argue for large long‑term upside (price‑target extrapolations to $150–$182), but these are speculative scenarios that rely on sustained AI share gains and margin recovery. MarketBeat long-term thesis
• Negative Sentiment: Investors punished Cisco after management disclosed gross‑margin pressure driven by a global memory shortage and higher component costs; that margin miss triggered a sharp selloff and created near‑term volatility risk for CSCO. CNBC margin story
• Negative Sentiment: Despite upbeat revenue/guidance, some analysts and market commentary viewed Cisco’s margin outlook and guidance as mixed, prompting sector weakness and headline risk that could keep short‑term selling pressure elevated. MarketWatch on market impact
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data in the feed is inconsistent/zero and appears not to be a meaningful new factor for intraday moves. (Days‑to‑cover figures show no material change.)

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 9,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.38, for a total transaction of $748,600.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 33,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,522,525.88. This represents a 22.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 56,038 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.33, for a total value of $4,389,456.54. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 179,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,082,167.40. The trade was a 23.76% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 507,122 shares of company stock worth $39,545,816 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.5%

Cisco Systems stock opened at $76.85 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $77.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.10. The company has a market capitalization of $303.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.11 and a 52 week high of $88.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.88% and a net margin of 19.22%.The firm had revenue of $15.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.65%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CSCO. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Melius Research boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Finally, CICC Research boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.19.

Cisco Systems Company 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.