Garland Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Garland Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 97,554 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,020 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 4.7% of Garland Capital Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Garland Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Summit Global Investments increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 32,624 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,931,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the period. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $623,000. Atlas Wealth LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Atlas Wealth LLC now owns 19,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,150,000 after acquiring an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC now owns 11,290 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $668,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 61.0% in the fourth quarter. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. now owns 374,800 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $22,188,000 after acquiring an additional 142,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The business’s 50-day moving average is $61.95 and its 200 day moving average is $58.05.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.