Ellis Investment Partners LLC Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ellis Investment Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,275 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 245 shares during the quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $431,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its position 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 worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $56,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.87 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.59. The company has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.