Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC Acquires Shares of 5,960 Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 5,960 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Red Door Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 112,653 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,691,000 after purchasing an additional 7,825 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 161,602 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,164,000 after purchasing an additional 6,691 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 621,903 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,419,000 after purchasing an additional 2,760 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 1,526,950 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $77,142,000 after purchasing an additional 5,858 shares during the period. Finally, Invera Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $561,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Finally, Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.42.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $49.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.53 billion, a PE ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $45.56 and a 1 year high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.