United Asset Strategies Inc. Buys 4,370 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 48,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,370 shares during the quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,584,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $12,573,000 after acquiring an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 40,863 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,941,000 after purchasing an additional 1,820 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 38,053 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,899,000 after purchasing an additional 889 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $56.74.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.83 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $54.76. 2,988,858 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,956,627. The company has a market cap of $218.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.89, a PEG ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $52.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.00. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $57.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 62.99%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,794,278.35. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 in the last ninety 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.