Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 879 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 15.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,503 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 879 shares during the quarter. Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $329,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Parthenon LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Parthenon LLC now owns 215,332 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,879,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175 shares during the last quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 38.5% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC now owns 14,200 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $717,000 after acquiring an additional 3,950 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 15,281 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $772,000 after acquiring an additional 883 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 40,364 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,039,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the period. Finally, Alpha Cubed Investments LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 804,352 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $40,636,000 after purchasing an additional 28,373 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 worth $972,080 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CSCO. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, April 22nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Melius cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.80 on Tuesday, hitting $46.98. 18,531,437 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,243,893. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $48.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.92. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.56 and a 1-year high of $58.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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 business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

Cisco Systems 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.