Valued Retirements Inc. Sells 847 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Valued Retirements Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,106 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 847 shares during the period. Valued Retirements Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares during the period. Seizert Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,071,153 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $57,007,000 after acquiring an additional 24,841 shares during the last quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 6,742 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 882 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 314,916 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $16,760,000 after purchasing an additional 16,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $140,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.50 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $240.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $61.79 and its 200 day moving average is $57.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on CSCO. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

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.