Venturi Wealth Management LLC Acquires 7,197 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 20.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,022 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 7,197 shares during the quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,547,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Pflug Koory LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,955,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,791 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,591 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,744 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,879,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Wealth Management grew its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company's stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.1 %

CSCO traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $64.73. The stock had a trading volume of 4,670,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,329,850. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $60.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.41 dividend. 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 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $66.53.

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.