Sharkey Howes & Javer Invests $217,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sharkey Howes & Javer acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 3,670 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Sherman Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $76,000. Onefund LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Onefund LLC now owns 10,885 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $644,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $243,000. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA now owns 5,337 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $316,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $257,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $64.14 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $255.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50-day moving average of $61.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.87.

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

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

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.