Gries Financial LLC Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Gries Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,286 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,552 shares during the quarter. Gries Financial LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,681,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was 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 valued at $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $59.55 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.32. The stock has a market cap of $237.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $62.31. 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 announced its 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 return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.