Bard Financial Services Inc. Has $9.02 Million Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bard Financial Services Inc. lowered its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 152,435 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 170 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for 1.1% of Bard Financial Services Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Bard Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,024,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $798,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after acquiring an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.95.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $59.02. 7,867,098 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,192,501. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $58.31 and its 200-day moving average is $52.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $60.23. The stock has a market cap of $235.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.