Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 170,379 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,687 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises 1.2% of Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,068,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Quarry LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 617.7% during the 2nd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $58.74 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $55.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.24. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $59.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $233.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released 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. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. This trade represents a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 342,858 shares of company stock worth $19,661,157. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems 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.