Altfest L J & Co. Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. decreased its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 822 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CSCO. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, VitalStone Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.27 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $50.04. 5,096,209 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,715,580. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $49.78 and its 200-day moving average is $50.94. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $45.56 and a 12-month high of $58.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.16 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.42.

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.