Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. Acquires 3,186 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 129,520 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,186 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 1.8% of Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $7,668,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pflug Koory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,955,000 after buying an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $449,000 after buying an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,984 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $709,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,791 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $343,000 after buying an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.87 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.