Secured Retirement Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Secured Retirement Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 586.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,906 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,843 shares during the period. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.87 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.54. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. 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 firm 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.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a positive change 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 of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.