Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,309 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 924 shares during the quarter. Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. State Street Corp grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $62.57 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $62.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $59.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.77. The company has a market cap of $249.20 billion, a PE ratio of 26.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Company 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.