LMG Wealth Partners LLC Grows Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

LMG Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,570 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 412 shares during the quarter. LMG Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,224,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 269,517 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $15,955,000 after purchasing an additional 10,088 shares during the last quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 21,399 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,267,000 after buying an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 366,454 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $21,694,000 after buying an additional 2,254 shares during the last quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 9,803 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $580,000 after buying an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 82,244 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,869,000 after acquiring an additional 3,194 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target 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, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $64.84 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $258.24 billion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.87%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,921 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,667 in the last three months. Company 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.