Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Wellington Shields & Co. LLC

Wellington Shields & Co. LLC lessened its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,987 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,775,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 66,330 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,927,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Renasant Bank boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Renasant Bank now owns 9,663 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003 shares in the last quarter. Atala Financial Inc acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $197,000. LBP AM SA boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 942,388 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $55,789,000 after acquiring an additional 109,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integras Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $2,770,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $240.69 billion, a PE ratio of 26.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.