Forum Financial Management LP Raises Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Forum Financial Management LP increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 29.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,168 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,380 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,437,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $132,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 112,101 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 5,123 shares during the last quarter. Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $1,670,000. Finally, Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 1,539,557 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $91,142,000 after purchasing an additional 11,506 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 257,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,450,653.14. This trade represents a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,431 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,356. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4%

CSCO opened at $63.11 on Friday. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $59.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.93. The firm has a market cap of $251.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on CSCO. 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. Morgan Stanley reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

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.