Taylor Financial Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 3,557 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Taylor Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 3,557 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth 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. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.89 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.24 billion, a PE ratio of 26.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.