Lipe & Dalton Sells 400 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Lipe & Dalton lessened its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,359 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $258,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Redmond Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 59,877 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,545,000 after acquiring an additional 10,976 shares in the last quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 8,898 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $527,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the period. Navellier & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 33.1% in the 4th quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. now owns 8,100 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 2,014 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,388 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $733,000 after purchasing an additional 516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bell Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Bell Bank now owns 202,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $11,988,000 after purchasing an additional 18,993 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.98 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $254.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94, a P/E/G ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.