Trace Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $513,000 Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Trace Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,671 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $513,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,796,505,000 after buying an additional 4,832,813 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,419,041 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,741,597,000 after buying an additional 681,555 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,161,261 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,015,948,000 after buying an additional 1,943,563 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.0%

Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.62 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $253.10 billion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 14,635 shares of company stock valued at $931,901. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems 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.