Wealth Architects LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Wealth Architects LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 15,606 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,042 shares during the period. Wealth Architects LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $924,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Swedbank AB grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares during the period. Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the third quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,071,153 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $57,007,000 after acquiring an additional 24,841 shares during the period. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 15.1% during the third quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 6,742 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 882 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 5.6% during the third quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 314,916 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,760,000 after acquiring an additional 16,761 shares during the period. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $140,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.50 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $61.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $240.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. On average, analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. 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. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.