ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Reduces Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 896,776 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 8,053 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 2.3% of ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $55,340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $68.59 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.30. The stock has a market cap of $271.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.90. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $69.78.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 257,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total transaction of $1,027,222.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 309,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,281,257.36. This represents a 4.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.