Advisory Resource Group Decreases Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Advisory Resource Group reduced its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 88,754 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 8,964 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up about 1.1% of Advisory Resource Group’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Advisory Resource Group’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FMR LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $62.27 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $63.25.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.