Valmark Advisers Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Valmark Advisers Inc. cut its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,225 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,865 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,381,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pflug Koory LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,955,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,591 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,744 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,879,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. Finally, Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $64.87 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 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 $66.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $60.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.59. 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 released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Profile

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.