Meritage Portfolio Management Reduces Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Meritage Portfolio Management lessened its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 62.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,182 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 111,940 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,575,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in 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 in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings in 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. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 617.7% in the second quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Despite investors’ hopes for a rebound in Networking Equipment demand to boost Cisco’s fourth-quarter 2024 performance, the anticipation is tempered by limited indications of a significant recovery in demand. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $368,697.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 165,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,307.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $58.06 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $58.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.86, a PEG ratio of 4.79 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.99%.

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.