Ritholtz Wealth Management Grows Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 19.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 66,180 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,820 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,144,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $2,528,939,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter worth approximately $840,538,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,672,445,000 after acquiring an additional 6,345,954 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 47.1% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 18,922,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $955,961,000 after acquiring an additional 6,054,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 438.4% during the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 4,924,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $245,806,000 after purchasing an additional 4,010,228 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,659,200. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at $33,794,278.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 71,944 shares of company stock worth $3,566,120. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $50.54 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $203.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $47.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, 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 note on Friday, August 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.89.

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.