Trust Co. of Vermont Acquires 627 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 194,397 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 627 shares during the quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $11,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $223,000. Gill Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $269,000. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 18,058 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,069,000 after acquiring an additional 4,291 shares during the period. BTS Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $325,000. Finally, Howard Financial Services LTD. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 10,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $60.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 23,800,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,184,370. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $60.95. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.43. The company has a market cap of $239.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during 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%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction 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 approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CSCO. Citigroup increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

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.