U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 384,662 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,725 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises 0.8% of U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $19,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,069,815,000 after buying an additional 1,790,717 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,717,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847,682 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 33,536,256 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,802,909,000 after acquiring an additional 1,181,327 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Cisco Systems by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 18,750,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $947,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,753,165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.7% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,376,937 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $611,624,000 after acquiring an additional 405,699 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CSCO. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Bank of America raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Melius lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.53.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.33 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.12. The company had a trading volume of 17,935,302 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,219,910. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $45.56 and a 12-month high of $58.19. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $48.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.32, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.40%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.63%.

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.