Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. decreased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 309,279 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 26,055 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $18,309,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.28.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.03 on Monday, hitting $58.77. 7,066,689 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,564,722. The stock has a market capitalization of $234.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $58.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.18. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $60.23. 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Company 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.