Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by BLB&B Advisors LLC

BLB&B Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 15.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,125 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,698 shares during the period. BLB&B Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barrett & Company Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Barrett & Company Inc. now owns 7,555 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $904,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $337,000. Fairvoy Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $251,000. Finally, Keystone Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $62.27 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $63.25. The stock has a market cap of $248.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 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.