Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 577,952 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 26,106 shares during the period. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $34,215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,340 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $233,000. Montis Financial LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter. Montis Financial LLC now owns 6,755 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 1,355 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 57.7% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 5,126 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $273,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the period. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 36,489 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after purchasing an additional 1,919 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CSCO. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.27 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.04. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $63.25. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.