Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 58,045 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 75.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 134,765 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 58,045 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $7,978,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,261,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $61.50.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $60.23. 23,800,968 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,184,370. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business's 50-day moving average price is $58.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.52. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $60.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Cisco Systems's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict 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 will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.