Lewis Asset Management LLC Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Lewis Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 24.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,973 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,565 shares during the quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $472,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CSCO. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 456 shares during the period. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 12.4% in the second quarter. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL now owns 20,350 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $967,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares during the last quarter. Creekside Partners purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at approximately $617,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,685,000. Finally, Heritage Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,954,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $59.55 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.56, a PEG ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.32.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

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.