Advisory Resource Group Lowers Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Advisory Resource Group lowered its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 88,754 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 8,964 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up about 1.1% of Advisory Resource Group’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Advisory Resource Group’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,254,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. D Orazio & Associates Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 10,019 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $593,000 after acquiring an additional 422 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 152,605 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,034,000 after purchasing an additional 9,518 shares during the period. Apollon Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 5,112 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 933 shares during the period. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors L.P. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors L.P. now owns 441,162 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,957 shares during the period. Finally, TFG Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. TFG Advisers LLC now owns 45,867 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,715,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $62.27 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $63.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $59.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % 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. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.