BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,656 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $335,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 28,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,526,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Aljian Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $428,000. Equity Investment Corp boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,294,070 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $68,870,000 after purchasing an additional 6,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $242.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The business’s 50 day moving average is $61.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CSCO. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned 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 target price of $66.63.

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.