Formidable Asset Management LLC Reduces Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Formidable Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,395 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,756 shares during the quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,030,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $132,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 112,101 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 5,123 shares during the last quarter. Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $1,670,000. Finally, Stonegate Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 1,539,557 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $91,142,000 after purchasing an additional 11,506 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4%

CSCO opened at $63.11 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $59.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.93. The company has a market cap of $251.07 billion, a PE ratio of 27.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 257,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total transaction of $612,330.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 181,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,505,311. The trade was a 5.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,431 shares of company stock worth $1,421,356. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems 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.