Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Advisory Alpha LLC

Advisory Alpha LLC lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. 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 filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.0 %

CSCO opened at $61.63 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $58.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $245.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $61.76.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the business’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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

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.