Exeter Financial LLC Has $5.54 Million Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Exeter Financial LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 93,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 5,357 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up about 2.5% of Exeter Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Exeter Financial LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $798,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after purchasing an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $1,698,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their target price 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. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded 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 research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler raised 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, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.28.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $58.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $58.73 and a 200-day moving average of $53.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $234.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $60.23.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.