Legal & General Group Plc Boosts Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 0.5% of Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 1.18% of Cisco Systems worth $2,261,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,340,764,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 47,195,836 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,384,334,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,330 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 24,941,271 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,260,033,000 after buying an additional 2,723,260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 47.1% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 18,922,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $955,961,000 after buying an additional 6,054,748 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. HSBC upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Despite investors’ hopes for a rebound in Networking Equipment demand to boost Cisco’s fourth-quarter 2024 performance, the anticipation is tempered by limited indications of a significant recovery in demand. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $52.85 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.91 billion, a PE ratio of 17.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $48.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.15. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $54.58.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.