Madison Wealth Partners Inc Sells 1,250 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Madison Wealth Partners Inc lessened its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 18.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,646 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,250 shares during the quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % 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. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.46 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $240.53 billion, a PE ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.62. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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 $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

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.