Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 98,767 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up about 0.9% of Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,847,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after buying an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CSCO. 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.28.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $59.33 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $58.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.34. The firm has a market cap of $236.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,101,838.63. The trade was a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.