Chase Investment Counsel Corp Purchases 6,577 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Chase Investment Counsel Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 158.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,721 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,577 shares during the period. Chase Investment Counsel Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $733,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bare Financial Services Inc grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 531.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 366 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the second quarter worth $28,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 96.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 408 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 115.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 468 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Michael D. Capellas sold 16,150 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.28, for a total transaction of $1,248,072.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 157,218 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,807.04. This trade represents a 9.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 19,545 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total value of $1,485,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 671,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,003,220. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 73,498 shares of company stock worth $5,641,815 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.55.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.8%

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $77.74 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $52.11 and a 12 month high of $88.18. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $77.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.54. The stock has a market cap of $307.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $15.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.11 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.22% and a return on equity of 27.88%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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