Independent Wealth Network Inc. Increases Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Independent Wealth Network Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,144 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 280 shares during the quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $541,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after acquiring an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $502,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $61.63 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market cap of $245.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $61.76. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $58.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.81.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

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.