Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 140,929 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,446 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $7,500,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 25.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 72,310 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,609,000 after purchasing an additional 14,551 shares in the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at $199,000. Sage Capital Advisors llc lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 37.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 27,197 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,292,000 after buying an additional 7,350 shares during the last quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 1,708,914 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $81,191,000 after acquiring an additional 106,641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Naples Money Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Naples Money Management LLC now owns 30,900 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,468,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $59.21 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.87. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.54. The company has a market capitalization of $235.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 339,479 shares of company stock worth $19,490,991 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.