M Holdings Securities Inc. Sells 29,974 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

M Holdings Securities Inc. decreased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 94.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 29,974 shares during the period. M Holdings Securities Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $111,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.30 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The company has a market capitalization of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 an increase 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 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Cisco Systems

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.