Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Purchased by Carnegie Investment Counsel

Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 257,313 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 20,050 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $15,233,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.28.

Insider Activity

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

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $60.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $238.24 billion, a PE ratio of 25.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.