Grant GrossMendelsohn LLC Decreases Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Grant GrossMendelsohn LLC reduced its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 38.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,239 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,896 shares during the quarter. Grant GrossMendelsohn LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $369,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were 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 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. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $60.23 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $60.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.