Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stake Lessened by Advisory Alpha LLC

Advisory Alpha LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,138 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 788 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,591 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $627,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,744 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,879,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management grew its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the third quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Finally, Andina Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC now owns 5,249 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $279,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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 owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $61.63 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $245.46 billion, a PE ratio of 26.45, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.81. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $61.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.