Franklin Resources Inc. Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,195,469 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.46% of Cisco Systems worth $988,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Lantz Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 60,993 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,898,000 after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 143.0% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 26,807 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 15,777 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $445,000. Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 58,860 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,856,000 after buying an additional 3,777 shares during the period. Finally, Hofer & Associates. Inc raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hofer & Associates. Inc now owns 5,675 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

CSCO opened at $58.85 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $57.01 and its 200-day moving average is $51.24. The company has a market capitalization of $234.39 billion, a PE ratio of 25.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

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.