Empowered Funds LLC Buys 24,612 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 449,442 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,612 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $26,607,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fermata Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $300,000. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 14,142 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $753,000 after purchasing an additional 1,594 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 250,476 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $13,325,000 after purchasing an additional 69,537 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC now owns 11,793 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $622,000 after purchasing an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wynn Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 37,879 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.98. The stock has a market cap of $248.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $63.25.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares in the company, valued at $12,596,059. This trade represents a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

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.