Strong Tower Advisory Services Raises Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Strong Tower Advisory Services grew its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,665 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 834 shares during the period. Strong Tower Advisory Services’ holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $791,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, VitalStone Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $45,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Melius Research restated a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Melius downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.42.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $49.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $49.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.93. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.56 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 47.42%.

Cisco Systems 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.