Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Position Raised by Smith Thornton Advisors LLC

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,682 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the period. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $632,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Quarry LP increased its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.28.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.1 %

CSCO stock opened at $59.98 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $238.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.74, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50-day moving average of $58.79 and a 200-day moving average of $53.34. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $60.34.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

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.