Richwood Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Richwood Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,114 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $303,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 3rd 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $16,798,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 682,132 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,303,000 after acquiring an additional 37,424 shares in the last quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,881 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $898,000 after acquiring an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,952 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,117,000 after acquiring an additional 2,060 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $60.30 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $239.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.11.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.