Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Boosts Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 60.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,219 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,093 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $487,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in 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 period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.47 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $240.84 billion, a PE ratio of 25.95, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.35. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $62.31.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 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.