Meridian Financial Partners LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,020 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $267,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,340,764,000 after buying an additional 1,853,598 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the first quarter worth $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 26.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,906,357 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $56.76 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $56.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company’s 50 day moving average is $51.17 and its 200 day moving average is $48.60. The company has a market cap of $228.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 53.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $52.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.74.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $368,697.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 165,580 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,307.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $368,697.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 165,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,307.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.