Straight Path Wealth Management Makes New Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Straight Path Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 5,598 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $331,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. United Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $528,000. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $226,000. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.2% in the third quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 33,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,786,000 after acquiring an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balentine LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 121.7% in the third quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 11,153 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after acquiring an additional 6,123 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $63.96 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $61.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.20.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.