First Horizon Advisors Inc. Acquires 54,551 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 839,789 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,551 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 1.2% of First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $44,694,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at about $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $691,678,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,357 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 321,628 shares of company stock worth $18,449,561 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $57.01 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a market capitalization of $227.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.47, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a fifty day moving average of $54.52 and a 200-day moving average of $49.95.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

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.