Financial Advocates Investment Management Acquires 205 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,294 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,096,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $502,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, 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 ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $62.57 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $62.71. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $59.52 and a 200-day moving average of $54.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $249.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

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.