MFA Wealth Services Acquires New Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

MFA Wealth Services bought a new position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 12,906 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $764,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,958 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,122,000 after acquiring an additional 1,524 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 49.5% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,392,000 after purchasing an additional 24,562 shares in the last quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 41,344 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,345 shares in the last quarter. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth approximately $239,000. Finally, Apeiron RIA LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC now owns 6,910 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $409,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Eight equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $3,345,228.12. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 219,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,596,059. The trade was a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

CSCO stock opened at $62.23 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $62.32. 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 firm has a market cap of $247.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.71, a PEG ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.86.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 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.