Benjamin Edwards Inc. Raises Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.8% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,441 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1,096.2% during the 4th quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,906,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $146,845,000 after acquiring an additional 2,663,676 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 24,346 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 943 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares during the last quarter. Inscription Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 49.4% during the 1st quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 45,983 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,300,000 after buying an additional 15,198 shares during the period. Finally, Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $117,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $51.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.05. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $54.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.38 billion, a PE ratio of 17.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Despite investors’ hopes for a rebound in Networking Equipment demand to boost Cisco’s fourth-quarter 2024 performance, the anticipation is tempered by limited indications of a significant recovery in demand. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. HSBC upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target 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, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.11.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.