Verity & Verity LLC Acquires 42,523 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Verity & Verity LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 395,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 42,523 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up 2.1% of Verity & Verity LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $23,420,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $242,000. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40,995 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,948,000 after purchasing an additional 5,543 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at $475,000. Cowa LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $461,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 11.8% during the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 702,429 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,372,000 after buying an additional 73,977 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.7 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company 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. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $58.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.95.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.