West Branch Capital LLC Increases Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

West Branch Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 10.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,544 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,304 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 0.8% of West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,637,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,317 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $314,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,299,562 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $136,134,000 after acquiring an additional 339,393 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 21,743 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 25,542 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 4,271 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’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 in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $61.03 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $61.33. 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 $243.07 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average is $58.94 and its 200 day moving average is $53.70.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.62%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.