American Financial & Tax Strategies Inc. Cuts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

American Financial & Tax Strategies Inc. decreased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 70.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,384 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 20,281 shares during the period. American Financial & Tax Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $62.27 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.82. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $62.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.73, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 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.