Spire Wealth Management Increases Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 65.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 42,989 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,987 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,545,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP boosted 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 acquiring an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 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 value of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.60 on Monday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $59.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.54. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $62.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $241.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.01, a PEG ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.