Strategic Financial Concepts LLC Makes New $282,000 Investment in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,765 shares of the network equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pflug Koory LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,591 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $627,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,744 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,879,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the third quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the period. Finally, Andina Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the third quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC now owns 5,249 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $279,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.69 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $63.98. 18,884,987 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,763,086. The business's 50 day moving average is $60.55 and its 200-day moving average is $56.01. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $66.53.

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.