Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC Reduces Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,177 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 276 shares during the quarter. Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 92.3% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,271 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $333,000. Voya Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 11.0% during the third quarter. Voya Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 7,876 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 18.6% during the third quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 22,685 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,207,000 after buying an additional 3,550 shares during the period. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 6.5% in the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,345,204 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $71,592,000 after buying an additional 82,439 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the company. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $54.54 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $216.98 billion, a PE ratio of 23.82, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $61.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.41 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Company 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.