Essex Financial Services Inc. Has $4.50 Million Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,941 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,267 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Summit Trail Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 88,046 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,212,000 after acquiring an additional 12,247 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 195.7% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 24,776 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,467,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the period. Pineridge Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 77.0% during the 4th quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 4,589 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 1,997 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 14,137 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $837,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.9 %

CSCO opened at $62.81 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $59.71 and a 200 day moving average of $55.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $63.25. The company has a market cap of $250.16 billion, a PE ratio of 26.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.