Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Has $686,000 Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,593 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 192 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $686,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $132,000. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $502,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.5 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.30 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.11. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company has a market capitalization of $239.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.