Alley Investment Management Company LLC Acquires 4,159 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Alley Investment Management Company LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 107,590 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,159 shares during the quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $6,369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $63.96. 14,499,166 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,806,365. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The company's 50-day moving average is $61.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.16. The company has a market capitalization of $254.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued 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 analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal 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 $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

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

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.