Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 26,980 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 48.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,149 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 26,980 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,863,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 172,821 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,231,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188 shares during the period. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 157,386 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,317,000 after buying an additional 12,424 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 372,106 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $22,029,000 after buying an additional 78,791 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,670,000. Finally, Novare Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC now owns 206,779 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,241,000 after buying an additional 3,440 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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 directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $62.23 on Monday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $247.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

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, 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 business 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. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. 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.