BTS Asset Management Inc. Purchases New Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

BTS Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 5,486 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $325,000. Cisco Systems accounts for about 0.3% of BTS Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP lifted its holdings 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 during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased 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 worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CSCO. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price 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. Finally, Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.23 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $58.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.43. 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 twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.95. The stock has a market cap of $239.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

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.