Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC decreased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 152,855 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,845 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,049,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake 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 last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented 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 report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. The trade was a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This represents 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 worth $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. Corporate 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.