Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Acquires 23,250 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 156,043 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,250 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Swedbank AB grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems by 1.9% in the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 47,985 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,554,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 8.7% in the third quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 15,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $827,000 after acquiring an additional 1,243 shares in the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 19.9% in the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 60,629 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,227,000 after acquiring an additional 10,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPG Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 6.4% in the third quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 152,220 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,112 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $60.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $240.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $61.74 and a 200-day moving average of $57.62.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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 research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This is a boost 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

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.