bLong Financial LLC Makes New $1.05 Million Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

bLong Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 17,740 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,050,000. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 0.9% of bLong Financial LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CSCO. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $64.87 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $258.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $60.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.54.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

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.