Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Grows Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 317,838 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,312 shares during the quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $18,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Pflug Koory LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $1,955,000 after buying an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,656 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $335,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,984 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $709,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 3.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $61.40 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $62.10 and a 200-day moving average of $58.38. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $244.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (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 forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.