First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Purchases 10,755 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 11.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 108,812 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,755 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up about 0.5% of First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,497,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,069,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,790,717 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,717,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847,682 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 33,536,256 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,802,909,000 after acquiring an additional 1,181,327 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 18,750,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $947,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,753,165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,376,937 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $611,624,000 after acquiring an additional 405,699 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $46.84. The company had a trading volume of 18,260,816 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,235,400. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $189.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $48.90 and a 200 day moving average of $49.92. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.56 and a 52-week high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 48.63%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 value of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.